Beating of the Drums
by Rebellicade
Summary: "Who are you then?" "I told you already. Is your species normally this daft or are you just special?" "The Master isn't a proper name!" "And what kind of a name is Rose, really? That's a flower." In which instead of the Doctor, the Master meets Rose Tyler on that fateful day with the Nestene Consciousness. A re-imagined version of Doctor Who, with the Master in the title role. AU.
1. Rose

**ROSE  
chapter i**

* * *

Rose Tyler is not extraordinary in any way.

She wakes up in the morning looking like a total mess, some time between seven and eight. She works at Henrik's, a shop, like most other people. She dyes her hair blonde and expects everyone to believe that it's her natural hair color. She didn't even get her A-levels. The biggest achievement of her life is first place Jericho Street Junior School under sevens gymnastic team, when she got the bronze.

"Customer announcement," she hears the speakers blare, "The store will be closing in five minutes. The store will be closing in five minutes."

It's then a guard waves a plastic bag in front of her face, and after a couple of promises that she'll just go out back and lock the entrance there so they don't have to wait up for her, she stays in the empty store, and goes down to the basement.

"Wilson?" she calls, her voice echoing off the walls. "Wilson? I've got the lottery money! I can't hang about 'cause they're closing the shop. Wilson! Oh, come on. It's Rose, Wilson!" The moment she turns on the lights, or at least a couple of moments after, the door closes behind her. She curses silently. "Wilson! Come on out, will you?"

Dummies have always freaked her out. They're these strange white things with no faces, and she's glad she turned on the light because she knows they'd look creepier in the dark. The light doesn't stop her from yelping just a bit when she sees one turned in her direction.

She rolls her eyes at how silly she's being, until the dummy starts to walk towards her. "Ha-ha. Very funny." she says, "Who's behind all this?" A dummy on her right starts to walk as well, and Rose continues nervously. "It's Derek, isn't it? Come on out, Derek."

Suddenly, another dummy starts to walk, and another, and another. "Stop it!" Rose exclaims, "I caught you; joke's over. Not so funny anymore." She slowly backs towards the wall, her hands frantically searching her pockets for her phone.

Suddenly, a hand grabs her wrist. "Run."

She doesn't even see his face, but the voice tells her that it is a man, someone she hasn't met before. She runs, though, and normally she wouldn't just follow a total stranger but she thinks that this can be counted as an exception, what with students playing some sort of a stupid prank on her. She follows him into an elevator as the dummies chased them. The door closes on one's arm, and the stranger just pulls it off.

"You pulled off his arm," she breathes, not believing it.

"Yes."

"You pulled off his arm and it just came off, just like that."

The stranger looks quite annoyed with her, rolling his eyes. "I didn't save your life for you to state the obvious." She notices him drumming his fingers on his side, but doesn't dwell on the fact for too long.

"Save my life? It was just a prank played by some students!"

"They're not students." he says, irritably.

Rose lets it slide and says something else. "When Wilson finds out about this, he'll call the cops."

"And I should care because? I don't even know who this 'Wilson' is."

"Chief electrician."

"Oh." he says, then after a few seconds. "He's dead." He says it so casually as the elevator door opens, and the two continue walking at a considerably fast pace. She doesn't believe it. The whole thing is a prank, probably, since there's no way this man could just talk about death like it was just the weather.

"That's not funny. That's sick!"

He shrugs. "I've been called worse."

The two of them are behind Henrik's when she finally realizes that she should ask the question at the top of her mind. "Who are you, then? Who's that lot down there? I said who are they?"

"You're very irritating, you know that? They're not important. Now, go on, continue loving your dull, human life and eat some beans on toast or whatever."

"Who are you?" she insists.

"A name for a name."

"I'm Rose Tyler, then. Now, tell me who you are?"

Normally, she'd say something clever like ask him if he's compensating for something, but she was just attacked by living shop dummies and her mind is reeling. "I'm the Master."

"That isn't a name!" she protests.

He laughs somewhat maniacally and the sound unnerves her. He grabs a hold of her wrist again, tightly and she is scared that he is in fact a madman. "It's mine!" with his other hand, he holds up a tiny circular thing. "I'm going to drop this, and on the count of four we run, do you understand?"

"Count of _four_?"

"Yes, on the count of four! You humans always ask the most stupid questions in the most dangerous situations. One," she feels his fingers tap against her arm in a fast beat of one-two-three-four. "Two," two-three-four, "Three," two-three-four, "Four!"

He drops his sphere onto the ground, and the two run faster this time, away from the building, and as it turns out, the explosion. At some point, she doesn't know when, he lets go of her, but her world is still spinning when they stop and she sees the smoke from the fire.

"You just blew up my job." she says, "What the bloody hell are you and what gives you a right to just do that?"

When she turns around the Master is gone.

* * *

Rose is not paying much mind to the television ("The whole of Central London has been closed off as police investigate the fire. Early reports indicate…"), and even less to her mother ("I know. It's on the telly. It's everywhere. She's lucky to be alive. Honestly, it's aged her. Skin like an old bible. Walking in now you'd think _I_ was _her_ daughter!").

She's saved when Mickey enters the door. "I've been phoning you the whole day! It's on the news, Rose! You could've been dead. I can't believe that the shop blew up just like that."

"I'm all right, honestly!" she insists after a quick hug, "Promise."

"Well," Mickey starts, "What happened?"

"I don't know," she says, not completely lying.

"What do you mean you don't know? You were there, weren't you?"

"I was outside of the shop when the explosion happened." she says, another not-so-much-of-a lie.

"It's Debbie on the end!" she hears her mum call suddenly from the living room, "She knows a man on the Mirror! Five hundred quid for an interview!" Rose gets handed the phone.

"Oh, that's brilliant!" she says, just as she presses the button to end the call.

Jackie sighs. "Well, you need to find _some_ way to make money." The telephone rings again and her mum picks it up again. "Bev! Yes, she's alive. I told her to sue for compensation…"

Rose groans and takes another sip of her tea.

"What are you drinking?" Mickey asks, and then looks at her cup. "No, no, no, no. You need something stronger. Let's go down to the pub. It'll be just you and me, my treat. How about it?"

She rolls her eyes. "Is there a match on?"

Mickey denies it. "No, I'm just thinking about you, babe."

"There's a match on, ain't there?"

He finally gives in. "That's not the point." he says, "But if we go now we'll catch the last five minutes."

Rose smiles and hits him playfully. "Go on, then. I'm fine really." Mickey picks up the plastic arm, and plays with it, pretending to strangle himself, laughing. "And get rid of that too, will you? Bye."

"Bye, bye." He nods and waves goodbye at her, and the door is left open long enough for her to see him throw it into a trash bin.

* * *

The next day, Rose Tyler continues her not-so extraordinary routine, waking up some time between seven and eight in the morning. She turns off her alarm, groaning, because anyone who knows her knows that she's definitely not a morning person.

"No use getting up, sweetheart!" her mum says, "No job for you to go to!"

She gets up anyway, gets dressed and meets her mum in the kitchen as the latter makes breakfast.

"There's Finch's." Jackie says, all of a sudden. "They always have jobs."

"The butcher's." Rose deadpans, "Great."

"Well, it might do you good. That shop was giving you airs and graces. And I'm not joking about compensation. You've had genuine shock and trauma. Arianna got two thousand quid off the council just because the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek!" the older Tyler pauses at Rose's pointed look, "I know she _is_ Greek, but that's not the point. It was a valid claim."

Rose hears a rattle at the door and rolls her eyes. "You're such a liar, Mum. I told you to nail the cat flap down. We're going to get strays."

"I did weeks ago!"

"No, you thought about it." she mutters, as she walks towards the door. Four screws are on the ground and the flap moves.

She opens the door and sees the same man from last night. "You!"

"What're you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that considering you blew up my job!" she says, "Not to mention the fact I _live_ here. How'd you find out where I live?"

He suddenly knocks on her head and she winces just a bit. "Nope, just another human. Bye, then. I can't say it was nice knowing you." he drawls the last bit and starts to walk away.

"You. Inside. Now."

"A silly human like you can't just order me around, Rose Tyler." he says, clearly remembering her name. "I am _the Master_, the last of the Time Lords."

"You say that like it's supposed to sound impressive."

He grins and something about it unnerves her. "Oh, believe me, it is."

Jackie shouts at her from the kitchen. "Who is it?"

"It's about last night, part of the inquiry." she lies easily, "Just give us ten minutes." She looks at the Master and frowns. "Now, come inside."

"If we're going to talk, I'm not going to do it in some _earth_ home. You're coming with me."

She lets out a groan of frustration and walks briskly to keep up with his pace. "Who are you, then?"

"I told you. Is your species normally this daft or are you just special?"

"'The Master' isn't a proper name."

"And what kind of a name is _Rose_, really? That's a flower."

She sighs. "Point is, I was thinking we should go to the police. I'm still fuzzy about the details so I think you should explain everyth–"

He laughs. "You honestly think that pathetic human police can solve something this big? Please tell me you're joking."

"I'm not!" she says, neither of them noticing the plastic arm that crept up beside him. "They said they found a body in the news–" The plastic arm flies, its hand gripping around the Master's neck as she continues to talk, not noticing the scene happening just beside her. "–I reckon it was Wilson's. All the same, he was nice. Nice bloke." The Master struggles to fish something out of his pocket. "Which is why I think–"

"Do you ever stop talking?" he chokes out.

She turns around to see him. " You're all the same. Give a man a plastic hand," she mutters the last bit, "Stop joking around. I wonder how you got your hand on that though, I told Mickey to chuck it out yesterday."

Suddenly, the arm flies off of him and starts to strangle her, and she is very much aware that he isn't holding the end and the arm is very much acting on its own accord.

He looks kind of triumphant as his left hand finally grasps something, cylinder in shape, colors black and silver with a white glowing bit at the end. The arm suddenly shrinks and just disappears into non-existence.

"That just vanished."

"No, it didn't." he says, showing her a tiny, tiny little arm in the palm of his hand, one so small that she could only see it when she squints. "It shrank."

"Same difference!" she exclaims, "It tried to kill me. Oh my gosh, I was almost killed by a plastic hand."

"You're welcome." he says, looking fairly indifferent to her panicked expression.

"What have I done wrong? How comes those plastic things keep coming after me?"

He scoffs. "You're acting as if the universe revolves around you. You were an _accident_. It was after me, not you. Last night, in the shop, I was there, you blundered in, almost ruined the whole thing. This morning, I was tracking it down; it was tracking me down. The only reason it fixed on you is 'cause you've met me."

"You're acting as if the universe revolves around _you_!"

"Of course it does." he says, "I'm The Master."

"You're full of it," she says.

"I'm only saying it because it's true."

She decides not to talk about his huge ego anymore and change the topic. "Does anyone else know about it? The plastic thing?" She continues walking beside him, and the two soon reach the park.

"No one."

"So you're working on it _alone_?"

"I'm not working on anything." he says, "I just have to find my TARDIS and get out of here. You can deal with your own problems."

"There is _living plastic_ trying to overrun the earth and evidently, you and your laser thing are the only things that can stop it. What's this all about anyway? I mean, shop window dummies, what's that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?"

"I told you, they want to overthrow the human race and destroy you. _Human_ race." he gestures to himself, "Time Lord." then he gestures to her, "Human. As you can see, _not my problem_."

"But you are human!" she exclaims, "You look human, you talk human, you might not be acting human but you _are_."

He grabs one of her hands and places it on his chest. "What do you feel?"

"Your heart. It's racing."

"No, it isn't. Those are two hearts. As you can see, I'm _not_ human. Now, please, _leave_, before I'm tempted to kill you."

She stays put. "I'm not leaving 'till you agree to help." she says, determined. After a silence, her face softens and she tries a different approach, reaching out to hold onto his hand. "You don't want to, I get it, but if these plastic things are really going to 'overthrow the human race and destroy us' then seven billion lives are depending on you."

"Seven billion lives." he muses, "Is this what being a god feels like? Everyone depending on me, your lord and Master."

She resists the urge to roll her eyes. "I understand how you feel. I've been hurt and betrayed and because of that sometimes I'd rather run away than just do the right thing but–"

He cuts her off, shaking her hand off of his and grabbing her wrist. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"The drums."

His eyes are an unusual mix of emotion; rage, sadness and insanity all reflected in just one look and she's almost afraid to reply. "No, I don't hear anything."

"The drums of war. They're getting louder. They're getting closer." he starts tapping out a beat on a nearby park bench. "One two three four, one two three four, one two three four, _one two three four_. It's always just there. Do you hear the drums, Rose Tyler?"

"I told you, I don't."

His face is inches away from hers. "Then you cannot possibly understand how I feel."

He lets go of her, and walks away towards a blue box in a nearby alleyway, stepping in, and it isn't that which she finds unusual.

It's that the box fades away, leaving the place altogether, after a few seconds.

* * *

_ found 17 700 000 results under "the master"._

Rose skims through the first page; sighing, nothing but dictionary definitions and Wikipedia pages pop up. She tries again.

_ found 107 300 results under "the master drums"._

_ found 77 900 results under "the master two hearts"._

_ found 55 300 results under "the master living plastic"._

She tries one last time.

_ found 128 results under "the master blue box". Did you mean "the **doctor** blue box"? **Do not show searches for the doctor blue box.**_

She sighs and shuts her computer. There really isn't any way that she's going to find out more about this man.

* * *

When Mickey picks her up for lunch the next day, Rose can tell there's something different, but honestly, she's too tired to question it.

"What do you want to eat?" she asks, "I was thinking pizza."

"Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!"

She shrugs. "Or maybe Chinese,"

"Pizza!" he says as he steps forward on the gas.

"Alright then," she concedes, "Whatever you want, I guess."

When they arrive at the restaurant after a quiet ride in the car, they get a table and sit down. After ordering her food, she attempts to start conversation. "What do you think I should do for a job?" she asks, "Do you think I should try the hospital? Suki said they had jobs going in the canteen. Is that it then, dishing out chips? I could do A Levels. I don't know. It's all Jimmy Stone's fault." She grimaces at the memory of her ex-boyfriend. "I only left school because of him. Look where he ended up. What do you think?"

"Where did you meet this Master?"

She's annoyed by the question. "I'm sorry, wasn't I talking about me for a second?" she says, "In fact, when did I even tell you about him, I haven't talked to you ever since–"

"Because I reckon it started back at the shop, am I right? Was he something to do with that?"

"No."

"Come on!"

"Sort of." she admits, "I didn't tell you though because–"

"What was he doing there?"

She glares at him. "_Because _I think he's dangerous. And I don't want you to be in danger, yeah? I know it sounds daft, but I don't think he's safe."

"But you can trust me, sweetheart, babe, sugar, babe, sugar." his voice changes pitch, and she brushes it off as some kind of joke Mickey's trying to pull to ease the tension. "You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Master and what he's planning, and I can help you, Rose. Because that's all I really want to do, sweetheart, babe, babe, sugar, sweetheart."

The second time he does it, it's in the _exact_ same manner and she frowns. "What're you doing that for?"

"Where's the Master?"

"Forget about him for a moment, Mickey, what's wrong?"

A new voice interrupts their conversation. "What's wrong is that you're a horrible person because your _boyfriend_ is made out of _plastic_ and you didn't even notice until now."

She freezes. The Master.

"Ah." Mickey says, smiling at the man. "Gotcha."

"On the contrary," the Master says, "I believe that's my line."

Rose is not ashamed to admit it. She screams when the Master stabs her boyfriend in the head with a fork. What freaks her out, she supposes, is when his skins starts to morph, absorbing the utensil until a few seconds later, when he spits it out.

"Anyway," Mickey says, as his hand starts to form into some sort of chopper and it smashes into the table and the structure collapses to the floor.

The Master struggles with Mickey for a while as customers scream, until he _pulls off his head_. Rose runs to the fire alarm and pulls it. "Everybody out! Everybody out! Now! Get out!"

The Master carries her boyfriend's head in one arm and grabs her hand to pull her into the direction of the kitchen and into the alleyway as the Master locks the back entrance. The blue box is in the middle of it and the Master goes inside.

"A wooden box? You honestly think you can hide from that _thing_ in a wooden box?" she shouts.

He steps out of it and rolls his eyes at her. "Yes, I do. Now, are you going to come inside or are you going to die?"

She runs inside the door, thinking maybe it won't be so bad. She's looking at the ground when she realizes that it's not dark at all, on the contrary the room is very well lit.

She looks up and she realizes this definitely cannot be the inside of a wooden box.

"It's going to get in."

"No, it won't." The Master says, irritated. "The assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and from what I've heard, they've tried." He sets down Mickey's head on the console, the center of the giant room. He crosses his arms.

"It's bigger on the inside."

"Your observation skills are clearly ten out of ten. What else?"

"Is this, like, magic or something?"

"No, it's alien."

"Alien." she repeats, dumbfounded.

"Remember what I said about not-being human?" he asks, "Then again, you might not. I've forgotten what the capacity for the human brain is."

"Which means, you're alien."

"You're alien too, if you think about it. The human race is just another species among many, and one of the more primitive ones as well."

"What is this thing?"

"Time and Relative Dimension in Space. In other words, a TARDIS."

"What happened to–" _Mickey_, she finishes in her head. Oh, God, _Mickey_. Is he dead? Is he still alive? Is he hurt? Where is he? The thought of him makes her start to cry and not the silent type of it either.

"Oh, dear Rassilon." he says, "You're crying. Why on earth are you crying? You're already useless enough as it is."

"Did they kill him? Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?" she chokes out the last word.

"Mickey?"

"My boyfriend! They turned him into plastic then, then, you just pulled off his head and now you're just letting it melt!"

"Melt?"

The Master turns around quickly and curses in a language she doesn't know, immediately pulling levers and pressing buttons as a loud whirring sound accompanies his actions. Rose panics. "What are you doing?"

"Following the signal. It's fading. Wait a minute; I've got it."

The noise stops and he walks towards the door. "You can't go out there," she protests, "That thing's still there. It's not safe!" She goes right after him when he doesn't listen to her and she's surprised to find herself on top of a roof. "We've moved."

"Yeah."

"So, did we fly?"

"We were there, now we're here. Really, it's too much for your little brain to handle. And stop worrying! The plastic body melted along with the head. There's nothing for you to be scared of anymore, of course, besides me."

She ignores his last comment. "I'll have to tell his mother." He gives her a questioning look. "Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you just went and forgot him, again! You were right. You are _an_ alien. Normal people would care!"

"Do I have to say it again? _Your_ boyfriend, _your_ planet, _not my problem_."

"So, what? You're just going to leave me here to fend for myself as the world ends?"

"Believe me, if I could, I _would_."

"Then what's stopping you? Go ahead and leave in your stupid blue box!"

"My 'stupid blue box' is the reason I can't!" he shouts, "It's _not_ letting me leave. I even found this," he holds up a vial, "on the console. You know what it is? Anti-plastic. The 'stupid blue box' wants me to save your bloody planet so you better be thankful that it's trapping me here."

"It's like a car, right, _your_ car? Just put in the keys or whatever your substitute for keys on your planet are, and drive it away from here if you want to leave so badly."

"My _TARDIS_," he stresses the name, "Is alien too. It makes its own decisions sometimes, and this one happens to be rather stubborn. Now, do you want to continue arguing about it or do you want to shut up so I can go and save the world?"

She's silent.

"I thought so." he paces around the rooftop.

"I'm coming with you, then."

"You'll just be dead weight. This is something I can handle on my own."

"Then why do you look so lost? Just walking around up here when all the trouble is obviously not happening on this roof." she points out, "What is it that you're looking for?"

"The transmitter. The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal." he says, running a hand through his hair, defeated and Rose feels kind of proud. "A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Radial. Close to where we're standing."

She points to the Eye behind him and he looks. "Like that?"

"What?"

"The Eye." she says, and in a strange turn of events now she is frustrated with him, she smirks though. "Is your species normally this daft or are you just special?" she asks, trying to mimic him.

He narrows his eyes at her and turns around again to see the Ferris wheel. "Oh."

"Not so stupid now, am I?"

"Not a time for you to be petty, Rose Tyler." as they walk down the stairs, out of the building and towards the Eye he continues talking. "Think of it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables–"

"The breast implants."

The Master _smiles_ a little at that and Rose notices, and she can't help but feel the sense of triumph that overcomes her. This is the first time she's seen him smile and it's almost like she's won a game.

She's happy but she doesn't let it show. He hasn't seen her smile yet and she's not giving in that easily.

"Still, we've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath." he starts to look around the area, unsuccessful.

She looks over the parapet and sees a large manhole entrance at the bottom of some steps. "What about this?"

He scowls at her.

Rose Tyler: 2. The Master: 0.

Both climb down a ladder into a chamber of sorts, made out of metal, with some _gooey_ reddish thing at the middle. " The Nestene Consciousness. That's it, inside the vat." the Master whispers, "A living plastic creature."

He walks on their platform, trying to get to a place where he can tip in the anti-plastic, she realizes, as she sees him take the vial out from his coat pocket.

"Rose!"

_Mickey_.

She runs towards the source of the sound and sees him. He doesn't look too bad, a few scrapes here and there, but aside from that, he's fine. She immediately pulls him into a tight hug. " Oh, God! Mickey, it's me! It's okay. It's all right."

"That thing down there, the liquid. Rose, it can talk!"

And to think she thought he was dead. She stops for a second to shoot a look at the Master who just smirks and shrugs at her in reply. The smug look is wiped off of his face when two shop window dummies grab him by both of his arms and a third grabs the vial from his hand.

He glares at the dummies for just a second and then puts on a charming smile. " I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation." The stuff in the vat flexes. "If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warp shunt technology. Respectfully, I ask that you leave this planet alone."

The vat growls and makes a noise when the shop dummy raises the vial. "Now do you honestly believe that I would actually use that against you?"

A door in the back slides back, revealing the blue box. "Yes, that's my ship. That's not true. Of course, I know! I was _there_."

The stuff in the vat makes something akin to a face and makes a growling noise, loud and deep not stopping for a long time, as the Master's charming smile falters, and is replaced with something sadder, he shakes his head and says one word, barely audible. "No." he says, "If I couldn't save _my_ world, I couldn't save yours."

The goo makes a loud noise and lights start to flicker all around the chamber. "Master!" she shouts, "What's happening?"

"Starting its invasion! Get out!"

"I'm not leaving you!"

"Save the sentimentality for later!" he shouts as he struggles against the dummies, trying to get his weapon, but failing because he is restrained. "Now get out, bring Rickey with you–"

"_Mickey_!"

"–And get out of here!"

She does the first thing she thinks of, calls her mum. After a couple of rings Jackie finally picks up. "Oh, there you are." her mum says, "I was just going to phone. You can get compensation. I said so. I've got this document thing off the police. Don't thank me."

"Where are you?" she asks, urgently.

"I'm in town."

"Go home! Go home right now!"

"Darling, you're breaking up. Listen, I'm just going to do a bit of late night shopping." she freezes, _the shop window dummies_, "I'll see you later. Ta-ra!"

Her mum hangs up and she panics. "Mum! Mum!" Realization dawns on her and she whispers quietly, mostly to herself. "It's the end of the world." She looks at the scene before her, Mickey panicking as well, the stairs gone, she's got no key to enter that bloody blue box. "I've got no A Levels, no job, no future." _I've got absolutely nothing to lose_.

She looks around quickly and spots on axe on the wall and she smashes the glass to get it. "But I tell you what I have got: Jericho Street Junior School under 7s gymnastic team. I've got the bronze!"

Rose chops through the rope holding a very long chain to the wall and takes firm hold. She backs up, and then starts a fast and powerful run then she _jumps_. She lets out the breath she was holding when she lands on the platform on the other side of the vat, and kicks the two dummies in, the anti-plastic falling in with them.

The Master stares at her before scowling at her indignantly. "I could've handled that!"

(Rose Tyler: 3. The Master 0.)

"Well?" she asks, as the vat begins to bubble. "Run!"

Mickey's already waiting for both of them at the TARDIS and the Master puts in his key and the three go inside. She catches the sound of the explosion, quiet compared to the whirring sound of the machine.

It materializes on the embankment. The Master holds the door open for her but Mickey runs through it first, terrified.

She hears her phone ring and she answers it. Mum. "It's not safe. There were these things, and they were shooting! And they–" Rose knows that it was wrong of her to hang up, but she does anyway.

Mickey is hiding behind a pallet. Rose smiles at him playfully. "Fat lot of good you were," she remarks, teasing only a little bit.

She hears the Master's voice coming from the blue box. "You coming, Rose Tyler?"

"You were useless in there. You'd be dead if it wasn't for me." He mumbles something, not looking her in the eye. "Sorry, what was that?"

"I s'pose, you _did_ help a little bit."

It's the closes thing that she'll get to a thank you, so she lets it go. "What did you say earlier?"

"I asked if you were coming."

"Don't." Mickey interrupts, "He's an alien! He's a _thing_."

He pulls out his weapon thing from a while ago. "A _thing_ with means to kill a pathetic idiot like you. I believe I was asking her, not you. What do you think, Rose Tyler? Live out the rest of your days on your boring planet with your boring boyfriend, or go anywhere in the world?"

"You hate me, have insulted me on many different occasions, and called me stupid more times than I can remember." she says, "Why should I come?"

"Because you _have_ to." he says, "TARDIS says so."

"Is it always this dangerous?"

"I'll protect you, then. Don't you trust me?" he says.

"No." she says, laughing to show it was meant as a bit of a joke. "Yeah, I can't. I've err… I've got to go and find my mum and someone's got to look after this stupid lump, so."

He shrugs. "Fine, then. Bye."

She waves awkwardly. "Yeah, bye." She helps Mickey up as the blue box fades from existence. "Come on, let's go. Come on. Come on." The two walk towards home again but she hears the TARDIS' sound, which makes her turn around.

"Nope, never mind. I take it back. It's not 'fine'; you're coming with me." The Master says, "The entire universe at your disposal, time too. This is your last chance."

_The entire universe at your disposal, _time_ too._

She thinks about it, and looks at Mickey. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Exactly."

She kisses him on the cheek, turns around, and runs towards the blue box.

Rose doesn't look back.

* * *

"What made you return?"

The TARDIS made a room for her, bigger and better than her old one, but it's still pink (and yellow too) and she loves it to bits. She opens the wardrobe to find clothes in her size already inside and after looking around she approaches the Master as he tinkers around in the console room.

"What do you mean?"

"You came back for me," she says, "After I said no, you–"

He interrupts. "Well, that's a long story."

"We're in a time machine." she says, "I'm sure you can spare a few moments."

"The TARDIS was on autopilot when it crashed here." he admits, as if that's supposed to make her realize something deep and meaningful. At her confused expression he shoots her a look of annoyance, but it doesn't look like he means it that much anymore. "Like I told you, the TARDIS thinks on it's own. It probably thought that coming here would be best for me, and it didn't want to go anywhere else after, and I assumed it was because of the Nestene."

"Wasn't it though? You saved a planet, everyone's happy now, you're a big hero."

"Well, I was going to go to Barcelona next, the planet not the city, but the TARDIS didn't want to leave the Time Vortex." she doesn't question what that is anymore, and gestures for him to continue. "She wanted you to come with us."

She doesn't know what to say. The blue box she's travelling in is the only reason why she's still on this journey. "Oh."

"She thinks I need you." he says, softly, rather frustrated. "But I don't!" he denies it, louder. "So, yes, if it was up to me you'd still be on Earth with that idiot boyfriend of yours."

She shrugs. "'Kay then. Tomorrow we start the whole journey across time thing, yeah?"

"Yeah." he replies, "Go ahead and waste yet one-third of your short life doing something completely and utterly pointless."

"And by that you mean…?"

"Sleeping."

"You don't need to sleep?"

"Of course, I don't! My race is by far the most superior, so of course my physiology would be better than yours."

Rose rolls her eyes and makes her way back to her room and stops in her tracks. "Master?"

"What is it, Rose Tyler?"

She turns around and smiles at him for the first time. "It's always better with two." she says and she starts to walk away after. "Good night."

* * *

**AN**: Hello, everyone! This is my first time writing DW fanfiction, and I'm pretty nervous about how it'll turn out. My friend and I were talking about what DW would be like if it was the Master instead of the Doctor that Rose met during _Rose_ and this fic was born. This might be a stand-alone, it might be a multi-chap, I don't really know. I have all these ideas running around in my head, and one of them is the Doctor making an appearance at some point too. Anyway, if you enjoyed this fic please **review**! ~Bell


	2. The End of the World - Part One

**THE END OF THE WORLD - PART ONE  
chapter ii**

* * *

"Backwards or forwards?" the Master asks, after she wakes up. She gives him a confused look. _Humans_. "In time, you idiot."

"Forwards." she replies, shooting him a glare. "A lot forward. One hundred years."

He snorts. "You call that 'a lot forward'?"

"Ten thousand, then!"

"The new Roman empire is _boring_." he says, "Try something a little more interesting, will you?"

"You decide!"

"Five point five slash apple slash twenty-six."

"That's not even a year!"

Ever since Rose Tyler went to bed the night before, he contemplated where to bring her first. The TARDIS tried giving suggestions in the form of pamphlets being left on his bed, the console, inside the refrigerator, _everywhere_. Perhaps a small, friendly planet with nothing to worry about, she had said. Like Midnight so she can try relaxing in Leisure Palace?

He got the perfect idea when he stopped thinking. The drums, of course, filled his thoughts and he thought of Gallifrey, his planet that is now gone. His TARDIS realized what he was up to and on his way to the library from the kitchen a lower drawer opened and he tripped over it, falling.

He found it soon enough in a history book detailing the planet called Earth. It is going to end in the year five point five slash apple slash twenty-six. His companion is going to watch her planet burn, and he's going to find out if Rose Tyler is as strong as she seems.

Rose Tyler, he thinks presently, even _he_ has to admit that name just rolls off the tongue.

"Yes, it is."

"Years are numbers," she protests in a way that is almost adorable, "You mentioned something about an _apple_ in there!"

"Let's see," he says, tapping his fingers against his chin in the familiar beat of four thoughtfully. "Tiny human brain versus nine hundred years of Time Lord knowledge."

"You're nine hundred years old?" she exclaims.

He admits it silently to himself; he doesn't know how old he is. How would he? Time travelling makes his life non-linear, and time doesn't really pass by in the TARDIS. Like Romana had told him, after the first couple of centuries, it's hard to keep track. Last he checked he was nine hundred, and that shall be his age forever.

"If I wanted someone to just repeat everything I say I would've gotten a parrot, Rose Tyler." he tells her as he starts setting the coordinates on the TARDIS.

"Don't make me regret agreeing to come with you!"

"You're right," he drawls, "I'm sorry. How can I ever make it up to you? Breakfast in bed? Do you want a poem or song of apology? Or is all that and graciously letting you travel time and space not enough for you for the great Dame Rose Tyler?"

"Just stop it with the attitude, yeah?" she asks, "I was hoping we could become friends or something close to it."

"Like companions?" he shrugs, and thinks about it for a few seconds. It wouldn't be too bad, he supposes, and it's not like he has any plans of making Rose Tyler his enemy. "I hereby deem you my companion."

She smiles at that, and he feels slightly triumphant. "Good." she says, "It's a start." The Master doesn't know what it's a start towards to, and he runs through all the possibilities of this relationship crashing and burning, but he finds himself smiling back. "So, this 'year', what's supposed to happen here?"

"Look for yourself." he says, gesturing to the door of the TARDIS.

"You didn't bring me to some carnivorous skittles-that-eat-humans planet, did you?"

He holds his hand to his heart in mock offense. "I'm appalled that you think I would do that to an companion." he replies. _Carnivorous skittles that eat humans, _he wonders, _really_?

"Where are we?" she asks, grabbing his hand so he can lead the way. The feeling is _unusual_ and he's not used to having a hand to hold, and he doesn't know if it's a good unusual or a bad unusual, so he doesn't shake it off. He brings her down a flight of stairs, and a large shutter in the wall opens, revealing a window, the sun and earth as its view. Platform One, he notes.

"Five billion years into your future." he tells her, he looks at his watch and counts the seconds until he looks up in perfect timing with the sun flaring red. "There's a party being held here, I'm sure an announcement will happen–"

"Shuttles five and six now docking. Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation and religion. The main event is scheduled for fifteen thirty-nine. Drinks will be served afterwards in the Manchester Suite."

"–Any minute now." he finishes with a smile after the computer's notice.

"What is this main event?"

"I thought you'd appreciate the surprise," he says, not exactly lying.

She sticks her tongue out at him in a very childish manner. "By guests," she starts slowly, "Do they mean people?"

"Of course they mean people." he says, "Incredibly planet-ist of you to assume that humans are the only people there is."

"What I meant was _aliens_. By guests, do you mean aliens?"

"Yeah." he says, guiding her through the hallway. "Rich aliens from all across the galaxy have come to witness this wonderful, wonderful event."

She stops to look out another window, a different view of the sight she saw when they first entered. The heat of the sun makes the earth look almost orange, up against a backdrop of midnight blue and stars. "It's beautiful."

_If only she knew what she was looking at…_ The Master thinks this to himself, grinning. Rose Tyler, finding beauty in complete and utter destruction. Perhaps they are alike in more ways than one. His train of thought is interrupted when a male Crespallion, blue skin and everything approaches them. "Who the hell are you?"

He's not even listening that much to his words, the look on Rose Tyler's face is much too amusing. "Sorry, what?"

"How did you get in? This is a maximum hospitality zone. The guests have disembarked. They're on their way any second now." the voice sounds affronted, and the Master is running through a million ways on how they could continue unharmed by the security on this ship, until he remembers the item in his coat pocket: psychic paper.

He pulls it out. "I was invited," he says, as if it were obvious. "This is my invitation: the Master and companion. I'm the Master and this is my companion, Rose Tyler. Is this how you treat your guests?"

The face of the Crespallion turns a darker shade of blue, as if blushing. "No, no, of course not! I apologize, sir. If you're on board, we better start. Once again, really, I'm sorry–"

Rose Tyler cuts him off, laying a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "Really, it's fine." she says, "Now go about, we don't want to be keeping you from your job." As if it were even possible, the Crespallion's face turns an even darker shade of blue, blushing even harder, and the Master scowls, grabbing Rose's hand and forcing her to turn away. "What was that paper of yours? It was blank."

"It's magic," he says, sarcastically. "The paper's psychic, shows people whatever I want them to see, etcetera, etcetera. Nothing much."

"He's blue."

"That didn't stop you from flirting with him."

"I was not!" she protests, "That was being _nice_. You should try it sometime."

The same Crespallion stands by a door and begins to speak in a loud voice. "We have in attendance the Master and Rose Tyler. Thank you. Staff, please go to your positions." The steward clears his throat. "And now, might I introduce the next honored guest? Representing the Forest of Cheem, we have trees, namely, Jabe, Lute and Coffa." Ah, the Forest of Cheem. He's only ever been there once, but the people are still fascinating. Everybody with skin like bark, much like the female tree of Cheem standing next to her two larger male escorts. "There will be an exchange of gifts representing peace. If you could keep the room circulating, thank you."

Rose's expression is the most amusing thing he has ever seen in his entire life, and that includes Theta's third year History assignment back in the Academy. "Next, from the solicitors Jolco and Jolco, we have the Moxx of Balhoon." The Moxx of Balhoon has a giant head and a small body, blue again.

The steward continues. "And next, from Financial Family Seven, we have the Adherents of the Repeated Meme." Figures, robots actually, in black cloak-like clothing, with golden chains around their necks step out of the door and into the room.

"The inventors of Hypo-slip Travel Systems, the brothers Hop Pyleen. Thank you." These reptile-like creatures in fur make their way through the room. "Cal Spark Plug. Mister and Mrs. Pakoo: the Ambassadors from the City State of Binding Light." The Master turns to look at the new guests but is interrupted by a new voice.

The trees from the Forest of Cheem approach him. "The gift of peace. I bring you a cutting of my Grandfather." Jabe, he presumes, gives him a tiny branch in a pot, and he hands it over to Rose Tyler. He smiles politely as the trees look at him expectantly.

"Master," Rose Tyler says, nudging him. "Our gift of peace."

"Oh, yes." he says. His mind runs through things that trees could possibly want and finally he settle for a rather pitiful idea, one, he loathes to say it, that even Rickey the Idiot could've come up with. "I give you air from my lungs." He breathes out in her direction and the tree giggles slightly.

"How intimate."

"There's more where that came from." he winks.

"I bet there is." Rose Tyler rolls her eyes at the exchange as the trees leave. "Jealous?"

"You didn't need to flirt with a _tree_."

"You didn't need to flirt with a Crespallion and you did it anyway." he smirks, "'Sides, that's not flirting. It's being nice. I recall a certain someone telling me to try it sometime."

"From the Silver Devastation, the sponsor of the main event, please welcome the Face of Boe." Several Crespallions push a large glass case, which barely make it through the door. Inside is a giant head with straggly hair and squinted eyes. The Master has heard of him before, but never imagined he would look like this.

The Moxx of Balhoon approaches them. "My felicitations on this historical happenstance. I give you the gift of bodily salivas."

He can't help but let out a very, _very_ long laugh when the alien spits on his Rose Tyler. She looks absolutely disgusted, closing her eyes but trying to remain composed. "Thank you," she says.

The Adherents of the Repeated Meme approach and he grins, still amused by his companion's state. "A gift of peace in all good faith." It holds out a medium-sized silver ball and he nods.

"In return, we gift you with air from my lungs." He breathes on the group of aliens and they go away, to the next group of aliens in the room.

"I can't believe they fell for that." Rose Tyler snorts, "Air from your lungs? Do you honestly think you're _that_ important?"

"I _am_ that important."

The steward clears his throat and the room goes silent. "And last but not least, our very special guest. Ladies and gentlemen, and trees and multi-forms, consider the Earth below. In memory of Earth, we call forth the last Human. The Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen."

The Master decides he needs to take Rose to more places like this if it means watching the expression on her face. Lady Cassandra O'Brien is just a face on stretched skin, being rolled around in a frame by two assistants.

"Oh, don't stare." Cassandra says, "I know, I know it's shocking, isn't it? I've had my chin completely taken away and look at the difference. Look how thin I am. Thin and dainty. I don't look a day over two thousand." He _needs_ to take a picture of Rose Tyler's face. Suddenly, Cassandra's voice starts crackling. "Moisturize me! Moisturize me!"

One of her assistants uses a pump spray on the skin and Cassandra regains her smile. "There, all better now. Truly, I am the last Human. My father was a Texan, my mother was from the Arctic Desert. They were born on the Earth and were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honor them and say goodbye to them and to the dying earth."

She seems to catch that last part. The Master continues to put on a façade of innocence as Rose Tyler looks at him expectantly with her eyes wide as she mouths the words, 'dying earth?'

"Oh, no tears, no tears. I'm sorry." Cassandra continues, "But behold, I bring gifts. From Earth itself, the last remaining ostrich egg." She presents the gift to the Moxx of Balhoon who accepts it hesitantly. "Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils. Or was that my third husband? Oh, no. Oh, don't laugh. I'll get laughter lines. And here, another rarity. According to the archives, it is called an iPod."

The 'iPod' is wheeled in and Rose looks at it in incredulity. "That's a jukebox." she whispers.

"Well, they don't know that." he replies.

She leaves his side and walks behind Cassandra, disbelieving that she could just be some rectangular flap of skin. The aforementioned flap of skin begins to talk once more. "It stores classical music from humanity's greatest composers. Play on!" He shakes his head. _Tainted Love_ could hardly be considered a classic.

"Refreshments will now be served. Earth Death in sixty minutes."

That gets Rose Tyler running right back to him. She grabs his arm abruptly. "_Earth Death_?" she exclaims.

"Did I forget to mention that?" She storms off in an unknown direction. "You're going to get lost, you know!"

She turns around and walks back to him. "I don't care!" she hisses at him, "I just need to get away from you. You're mad. Who brings someone to the end of their planet on their first adventure together?"

"I promise, our next date will be much better."

She groans in frustration and chooses the path of an unknown corridor and leaves him. He rolls his eyes (_She'll be back_.) and turns around, only to see a flash of white light coming from the camera of that tree girl. Jabe, was it? "Thank you." the tree says, and he smiles fake-politely and goes off to find someone else to talk to.

* * *

Contrary to what he thought, Rose Tyler does not come back for a while. She hasn't been in the room for exactly thirty-four minutes. He finds her in one of the viewing rooms, in his opinion a better one than the main function room, after watching the assistants wheel the TARDIS away.

"Earth Death in twenty-five minutes." the computer announces.

She's playing with the gifts of peace. The ball has been set on the floor next to her, she's sitting on the ground, and she's picked up the cutting of Jabe's grandfather. "Hello. My name's Rose. That's a sort of plant. We might be related."

"And you say _I'm_ the mad one?" he interrupts, walking into the room. "You, Rose Tyler, are talking to a twig."

"How does talking to a twig beat making someone witness the end of their own planet?" she asks, pointedly. "Y'know if you just told in me in the beginning that we were going to see the end of the world, I would've been fine with it."

"Oh, but where's the fun in that?"

She gives up, he can tell, because she knows that she's fighting a losing battle. "Where are you from?" she asks, "What planet?"

"I come from all over the place."

"What's your home planet, then? Who are you?"

He thinks of Gallifrey and he thinks of the Dalek Emperor taking over the Cruciform and he winces. The sound of drums gets louder. "I'm the Master." he says, "That's all you really need to know. All that really counts is that I'm here, and I'm me and that you're here too. Alright?" The last part comes out a bit snappier, and he almost regrets it, but the drums are almost deafening.

"What planet are you from? At least tell me that."

He raises an eyebrow at her. "Can't remember." he deadpans, "What does it matter where I'm from?"

She sighs frustratedly. "Because you're taking me to all these planets and I don't even know if they're safe or not, and I'm just supposed to trust you. How can I do that if I don't even know what planet you're from?" He doesn't reply and she relents. "I'll tell you something about me, if you tell me something about you?"

"I'll save that offer for another day." he tells her, "What were you thinking about a while ago?"

"It's just that, how come all of them speak English?" she asks, "They're alien aren't they? Why do they speak English?"

He laughs. Silly humans. "The TARDIS has a built in translator." he explains, "It gets inside your head and everybody around you speaks in the language you're most comfortable with, with help from the telepathic field."

"Your machine gets inside my head. It gets inside and it changes my mind, and you didn't even ask?" Her tone is accusatory.

"Well," he starts, "Essentially, yes. It's good, though, if you think about it! Would you rather they were all speaking in whatever language they have in Crespallion or Balhoon?"

"Right." she says, "Shareen always said never to argue with the designated driver. I tried looking at my phone a while ago, no signal." She laughs weakly. "Can't exactly call for a taxi."

He freezes.

She thought about leaving. He thinks he should be glad about the whole thing. If she wants to leave, the TARDIS will respect that and she can go back to her boring earth life with Mickey the Idiot and forget about him, not that anyone can. More like, he can forget about her. He can continue traveling time and space alone, just him and his TARDIS, and nobody else to stop him. There wouldn't be anymore annoying Rose Tyler to encourage him to do the right thing.

No more Rose Tyler. Somehow, the thought scares him, and he admits it silently to himself. He came to Earth planning to die in the battle against the autons. He wasn't going to regenerate, and this girl, this stupid human girl, saved him.

Rassilon, the TARDIS was right. He _does _need her.

Her voice snaps him out of his thoughts. "Any way you s'pose I could call my mum or something?"

"Not possible." he answers, immediately. Talking to her mum could just make her homesick and she'd want to leave, but if his attitude towards her is what's pushing her in that direction at the moment, then perhaps it wouldn't hurt to do one nice thing for her. He grabs her phone. "Unless..." He takes her phone apart, and starts poking around with the end of his Tissue Compression Eliminator. It takes him a few minutes and he nearly chucks the phone out the window. (Theta's screwdriver thing would be better for this.) Eventually, he gives Rose Tyler her phone back. "Just dial your mum's number. It'll work."

She presses the numbers on her phone quickly and excitedly and presses the primitive human device against her ear. "Mum?" she asks, and he can hear her mother answer on the other line. And she didn't want to believe him about superior Time Lord physiology.

"Oh, what is it? What's wrong? What have I done now? Oh, this red top's falling to bits. There must be something, you never phone in the middle of the day." Rose Tyler laughs, and he can swear that he sees a bit a tears in her eyes. "What?"

"Nothing." Rose says immediately, "You all right, though?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"What day is it, Mum?"

"Wednesday, all day. You got a hangover?" She looks at him, not believing her mother's words. "Oh, I tell you what. Put a quid in that Lottery syndicate. I'll pay you back later."

"I'm just calling to say I might be late from home."

"Is there something wrong?"

"No, I'm fine." she says, "Top of the world."

He decides not to make some cheesy joke about the phone bill. "So, you're done with all the sentimental shit with your mum." he says, "I was thinking it'd be best if we go back to the–"

"My mum's dead." Rose states.

"Don't be silly." he tells her, "You just talked to her."

"I mean, she's dead _now_. That was five billion years ago. So, she's dead now. Five billion years later, my mum's dead."

"Of course she's dead now!" he exclaims, "Even Time Lords don't live that long! What could possibly make you think that any of you would stay alive this long? Bundle of laughs you are. I'm starting to reconsider you as a companion." She smiles just a bit as the floor begins to shake for a few seconds. He frowns. "That's not supposed to happen."

The two of them make their way back to the observatory deck. "That wasn't a gravity pocket. I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that. What do you think, Jabe? Listened to the engines. They've pitched up about thirty Hertz. That dodgy or what?"

"It's the sound of metal." Jabe replies, "It doesn't make any sense to me."

He shrugs and Rose hits him not-so-playfully, giving him a look. She doesn't need any words to say _save the world or else, _her eyes covered it. He sighs. "Where's the engine room?" he asks, resigned.

"I don't know, but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite, I could show you and your wife." Rose Tyler laughs. She actually _laughs_. He glares at her, because being his wife would be a wonderful, wonderful thing because he's a wonderful, wonderful person.

In fact... "Sounds wonderful. Thank you, we appreciate it." he says, slipping his arm around Rose's waist. That shuts her up. "My _lovely wife _and I would be glad to join you."

"Actually, _sweetheart_," the pet name is said through gritted teeth and a fake smile, he feels somewhat accomplished at this. "I think I'm going to go and talk to Lady Cassandra, yeah?"

"Anything you want." he tells her, his voice dripping with sweetness. "Just don't cause any trouble."

"Nothing that you wouldn't do." She winks at him and walks away.

Jabe smiles at him. "You two are very–" she struggles to find a word, presumably "–_cute_."

"Of course we are." he says, "Now, about that maintenance duct?" She leads him to the area, and it's fairly dark with pipes everywhere. "Who's in charge of Platform One? Is there a Captain or what?"

"There's just the Steward and the staff. All the rest is controlled by the metal mind."

"The _computer_, not the metal mind." he corrects her, slightly annoyed by her need to make it sound more complicated. "Who controls that?"

"The Corporation. They move Platform One from one artistic event to another."

The Master rolls his eyes. "There's nobody from the Corporation on board. I'm going to need a better answer than that." Realization dawns on his face and he cuts off Jabe's almost-answer. "Automatic, then?" He looks around at the different pipes and wiring. "Alpha class, which means this ship's unsinkable." He grimaces, thinking of the Titanic. "They once said that about a ship on Earth. It _did _sink. Since it's automatic though, would that mean there's nobody to help if you lot die?"

The tree does not look very pleased with his last statement. "I'm afraid not."

He laughs, he actually does. "Wonderful."

* * *

**AN**: Hello, everyone! I'm really happy about the **reviews**, follows and favorites on this story. They made my day so, thank you for them! I'm sorry this chapter's a little shorter than the last one, but the next one's going to be the other half of this episode from Rose's POV plus an original scene at the end. Love you all! ~Bell


	3. The End of the World - Part Two

**THE END OF THE WORLD - PART TWO  
****chapter iii**

* * *

The Master is the most completely, utterly and most certainly frustrating being in the entire universe

Rose has given up, honestly, because that man-alien-timelord-thing is impossible and the fact is making her question why she even agreed to get in his blue box and travel with him in the first place. _Because you want adventure and I'm adventure personified, that's why._ Oh, bloody hell, her mind's got his posh southern accent spot on.

At first, she was sure this was just a dream or that the Master was just some kidnapper, a mad man in a blue box, but the moment she saw her planet's 'destruction-in-progress' outside the window of the viewing platform, all doubting thoughts were thrown out of the window. Definitely, he's still a mad man, that thought hasn't vanished yet, but then again, it's part of the adventure.

If the whole world ending bit didn't convince her that she really is here witnessing it, then the bitchy trampoline sure did.

There is no way _she'd_ be part of any dream Rose has.

"Soon, the sun will blossom into a red giant, and my home will die. That's where I used to live, when I was a little boy, down there." She raises an eyebrow, because Cassandra just said 'little boy' and she's a hundred percent sure that her title is 'lady' not 'lord'. "Mummy and Daddy had a little house built into the side of the Los Angeles Crevice. I'd have such fun."

"What happened to everyone else? The human race, where did it go?"

"They say mankind has touched every star in the sky."

"So, you're not the last human." It's not said as a question, but she sure hopes she's getting an answer.

"I am the last pure human. The others mingled." There's something about the way she says it that makes her think of Harry Potter, as if Cassandra was some Malfoy spawn who was calling everybody else a mudblood. Her flat face contorts in disgust as she continues to speak. "Oh, they call themselves New humans and Proto-humans and Digi-humans, even 'Humanish, but you know what I call them? Mongrels."

"Right." she says, "And you stayed behind."

"I kept myself pure."

Rose really, really wants to laugh, but she doesn't. "Tell me again, how many operations have you had?"

"Seven hundred and eight. Next week, it's seven hundred and nine. I'm having my blood bleached." _Blood_ bleached? "Is that why you wanted a word? You could be flatter, Rose. You've got a little bit of a chin poking out."

She can't help but feel a little indignant about the chin comment, because she's fine just the way she is, thank you very much. "I'd rather die." She says it bluntly, meaning it completely. She doesn't intend to hurt Cassandra's feelings, but she doesn't intend to _not _hurt them either.

"Honestly, it doesn't hurt." Cassandra says, not noticing that Rose was very much serious about what she said.

"No, I mean it." she says, turning away from the view of her planet to face Cassandra completely. "I would rather die. It's better to die than live like you, a bitchy trampoline." She doesn't feel guilty about breaking promises to not cause any trouble because this is exactly something the Master would do, she's only known him for a day but she's completely sure of it.

"Oh, well. What do you know." Cassandra says in reply, trying to act nonchalant, but the atmosphere is too awkward to deny it.

"I was born on that planet, and so was my mum, and so was my dad, and that makes me officially the last human being in this room, 'cos you're not human." Her voice raises in volume and she doesn't really care that she's making a scene because this is _her _planet, dammit, and she's not going to have it represented by some mad flap of skin. "You've had it all nipped and tucked and flattened till there's nothing left. Anything human got chucked in the bin." She starts to talk softer, after she notices though black robot things turn to look her away. "You're just skin, Cassandra. Lipstick and skin. Nice talking."

She walks away faster than the trampoline can screech "Moisturize me!"

She's off to find the Master, of course. After all, he's the only person in this entire ship that could protect her and she's almost one hundred percent sure that the Adherents of the Repeated Meme are following her. She walks a little faster than she does normally, and goes through the different halls to try and find her designated driver.

"–share prices. Pfft. I know you lot. You've got massive forests everywhere, roots everywhere, and there's always money in land." She hears his voice and at the mention of the word 'forest', she immediately knows that he's talking to the tree. Jabe, she thinks, is her name.

"All the same, we respect the Earth as family. So many species evolved from that planet. Mankind is only one. I'm another. My ancestors were transplanted from the planet down below, and I'm a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest." To think that one day the tropical rainforest could evolve into a living, talking tree is an interesting thought.

She doesn't interrupt them, half because their voice is still distant and she doesn't know which passageway they're coming from, and half because it might be good for the Master to have a friend besides her.

Wait.

Did she just consider him as a friend?

Their voices get softer and she tries to move towards where she thinks it's coming from. "...your ancestry, Master? Perhaps you could tell a story or two. Perhaps a man only enjoys trouble when there's nothing else left. I scanned you earlier. The metal machine had trouble identifying your species." Time Lord, she thinks. That's what he told her he is. "It refused to admit your existence. And even when it named you, I wouldn't believe it. But it was right. I know where you're from. Forgive me for intruding, but it's remarkable that you even exist. I just wanted to say how sorry–"

Was the Master part of some endangered species or something?

"_Shut up_." His request is loud, and abrupt. "Shut up, so we can get back to finding out what the fuck is wrong with this ship. _Shut up_."

Both aliens become silent and Rose starts to walk in the direction. She's honestly worried that the Master's temper has caused him to use his shrink ray thing, and that Jabe is now a itsby bitsy tree.

That plan changes the moment her world turns black.

The last thing she sees is an Adherant's face.

* * *

When she wakes up, she can vaguely hear _Toxic _playing somewhere in the ship.

"Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending."

The voice sounds much like the robotic one that announces how close they are to earth death, and she doesn't really know what it means by sun filter, until a blinding white light starts to descend in the room. Slowly, the temperature rises, and she panics. This is her first adventure out of many. This is not the one where she dies.

(She never thought that her death's theme music would be Britney Spears. _Too high, can't come down._)

She slowly stands because the sun filter isn't that low yet, and she immediately starts banging on the metal door, which doesn't seem to have a knob to turn or some kind of button to open it. "Let me out! Let me out!"

"Sun filter descending." It gets lower, and as a result, gets hotter.

(_It's in the air, and it's all around. Can you feel me now?_) "Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!" she continues to shout, hammering on the door.

"Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending."

She hears footsteps outside, walking past the room and she screams. It's high-pitched and loud and if that doesn't stop whoever it is in their tracks then she doesn't know what will. She just hopes that this door isn't soundproof. "Let me out!"

"A handful of people on this ship and you're the one who gets trapped in the room that's about to kill you." she hears them say, "Should've known, Rose Tyler." It's the Master, of course it is, because she's introduced herself to everybody on this ship and he's the only one who would still refer to her by her full name. God forbid she tell him her middle name is 'Marion', he'd probably say the mouthful each time.

"Open the door!" she shrieks.

"Actually, this _is _kind of fun." she hears him say from the other end of the door, "I'm your one hope for survival. How does that feel?"

"Bloody irritating if you're just going to stand there!"

"Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending. Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising. Sun filter descending. Sun filter rising."

(_With a taste of your lips, I'm on a ride. You're toxic, I'm slippin' under with a taste of poison paradise. I'm addicted to you, don't you know that you're toxic?_) Britney Spears continues to blare through the speakers as the sun filter can't decide whether it's going up or down. "It's malfunctioning! Stop mucking about and open that door!"

"What if I don't want to?" he muses, "After all, I'm savage. I'm the perfect warrior. It's why they brought me back." She's so confused as to what he's talking about, but stops banging on the door to hear him properly. "I am _death's champion _and entire species is _dead_. The Time Lords, so great and powerful, all _gone_. Why should the life of one little human girl matter to me?"

She's breathing heavily, and she can feel tears are coming to her eyes. It all clicks. She's here to watch her planet die, because his planet is dead too. She succumbs to her fate but tries one last time, answering his last question. "Because we're both alone." She is, in a sense, her life is just one big story chronicling every person leaving her, but this mad man might just be the first person who takes her away with him on an adventure. "And alone is an awful thing to be."

"Rose Tyler." the Master says, "Step aside and get away from the door."

She does as told, grinning to herself as she walks with her back bended, because the sun filter is getting precariously close to the ground. "Ready!" she shouts.

The door immediately shrinks and the tiny piece of metal lands on the floor with a soft clang. She scampers to the door, finding him waiting expectantly with a slightly annoyed look on his face, like always. She smiles, tongue at the corner of her mouth and she doesn't say anything because her eyes convey everything she needs to say.

_I knew you'd do it._

His eyes say everything he needs to say too.

_Shut up_.

He uses his shrink ray (the other night he told her it was a Tissue Computer Eradicator thing, really she doesn't know what it's called, but shrink ray seems to be the easier name) on some sort of opposite mode, and the door reverts to its original size. "What about the room?"

"What do you mean?" he asks.

"Metal _melts_."

"I'm going to say something that I'll eventually say a million more times as we continue to travel together. Your life depends on it." he tells her seriously, grabbing her shoulder and looking into her eyes. "_Not our problem_. Now come on, let's go find the TARDIS and leave. We'll go somewhere less hazardous. The past, maybe. We could visit Charles Dickens."_  
_

Rose struggles with it, really she does. This really isn't her problem. It isn't her people, her planet, or her time. He starts walking in the direction of the TARDIS, holding her hand. "You're saving them." she says instead. She attempts to drag him in the opposite direction. It doesn't work. "It's the right thing to do."

"I don't care about _right_."

"I do!" she exclaims, protesting. "And somewhere, deep inside, you do too, because you saved me. You. Saved. Me. It shows that you're not just some selfish bastard but deep down you actually care about other people's lives. Go and save those people just like you saved me. Go."

"Rose Tyler, I _am _selfish." he says, running a hand through his hair. "If you can't see that, then I've clearly underestimated your intelligence."

"If you're so selfish, then why did you save me?"

He's silent for a really long time. "I saved you because I'm selfish. That's all you're getting." he says, and she honestly doesn't know whether to be touched or annoyed, he grabs her hand and starts leading her in the direction of the TARDIS. "Come on, let's leave."

The Master is the most completely, utterly and most certainly frustrating being in the entire universe. But this time, Rose is not giving up. "No." she says, shaking off his hand and letting him go. "I'm staying and I'm going to save those people. You're welcome to join me, if you like."

He laughs because he doesn't believe her and grabs her hand again. "It's your funeral if you do." She yanks her hand away so that his meets nothing but air and she starts running in the opposite direction and she can vaguely hear him shout "Rose!". It's the first time she hears him using only her first name. She runs in the direction of Jabe's voice with a determined look in her face.

"The metal machine confirms. The spider devices have infiltrated the whole of Platform One." Jabe says.

The bitchy trampoline speaks next. "How's that possible? Our private rooms are protected by a code wall." Her voice starts to crack again. "Moisturize me! Moisturize me!"

"Excuse me," Rose interrupts, "What spider device?"

Jabe holds out the device and Rose sees what she means. "We found it in the engine room. Someone brought this on board. The Master said it was for sabotage."

The Moxx of Balhoon freezes, almost making a choking sound. "The _Master_?" he asks, "Jabe! Do not trust him so easily!"

"He is a Time Lord and he helped identify the spider device." Jabe says in reply, "I put my trust in this man." If only Jabe knew that he was probably centuries or galaxies away. Rose sighs.

"The Master is a _renegade_ Time Lord." the Moxx says, "Us Balhoonians have heard of him. He's tried to kill those of his own kind, and when faced with the opportunity to save his planet he _ran_. He wanted his people to die so he abandoned them in their time of need." Rose wants to protest. She wants to shout that's not real, but this strange blue alien knows more than she does, and her voice falters, the sentence dying in her throat. Would he really do that?

Cassandra gasps, and is moisturized soon after. "Then it must be him who brought the spider devices on board!" she turns to Rose with an angry expression, "Tell me, child! You are his accomplice, you travel with him. What do you know?" The flap of skin is wheeled closer towards her. "Where is the Master?"

"I, I–" She hangs her head in defeat. "I don't know." She pauses again, her voice cracking with the next sentence. "He left."

The bitchy trampoline laughs. "He ran before he could get caught and now he leaves us all here!" Her lip curls in disgust. "What a monster."

"It can't be him." Rose says, not knowing who she's really convincing. "Give me that spider." Jabe offers it to her and she closes her eyes, hoping that her plan would work. She kneels down and sets the spider on the floor. "Go back to your–" She tries finding another word and fails. "–master." She winces, realizing that now, above all other times, her companion's name is stupid and should be changed.

It stays in place. The Moxx of Balhoon looks slightly triumphant yet somber at the same time. "It stays for its _Master _has left the spaceship."

Then, it starts to move.

Rose wants to do a happy dance here and now.

It starts crawling, the complete and utter silence letting its tiny footsteps echo throughout the room. It stops in front of Cassandra before crawling towards the Adherents of the Repeated Meme, and Rose suddenly feels like Sherlock Holmes. "See?" she says, a grin spreading across her face. "It's them. Not him. Not the Master."

She doesn't know why she wants to defend him so much, especially now that he's abandoned her.

Then, all of a sudden. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear." It's his voice and she nearly runs over there to hug him. She does, she runs over to him. Except, she hits him on instead.

"Where were you?" she exclaims.

"Waiting for the boring part to be over." His eyes look slightly pained and in that instant she knows that he heard the entire conversation with the Moxx. "The Adherents of the Repeated Meme aren't real. They're an _ide__a _which only means that if I do this it wouldn't matter."

"Do what?" Rose asks.

He looks at her and raises an eyebrow. She nods in reply, holding out her hand and she smiles when he grasps it with his. He smiles back and the grin on her face grows wider. _I came back_, the gesture seems to tell her, _You're an idiot if you ever thought otherwise._ Her head still has the posh accent spot-on, but this time, she doesn't really mind.

He drags her over to the Adherents of the Repeated Meme, like she has any choice because the grip he has on her hand is so tight, and with his other hand, he yanks out the arm of a Repeated Meme then the wires inside of it. All three representatives collapse onto the ground and the Master looks so smug, but Rose feels slightly proud of him. She just won't ever tell him that.

"Go back to your real master." he instructs to the spider, and soon, it starts to crawl towards Cassandra.

The flap of skin growls, really she does and it scowls at her and the Master. "I bet you were the school swot and never got kissed."

The Master laughs at that. "On the contrary..." he trails off and winks.

The Moxx of Balhoon is seething. "Arrest her!" He glances over to the Master and amends his sentence. "Arrest _both _of them."

He raises an eyebrow at that. "Arresting the only man on the ship with the capacity to save you sorry lot? Not a wise decision." Cassandra's attendants raise their spray guns and point them at her. "What are you going to do? Moisturize us?" Rose cracks a smile at that.

"With acid. Oh, you're too late, anyway. My spiders have control of the mainframe. Oh, you all carried them as gifts, tax free, past every code wall. I'm not just a pretty face." she says.

"You're not a pretty face." Rose says at the exact same time the Master says, "You're not smart. Sabotaging a ship while you're still inside of it? Stupid _and _ugly."

"I'd hoped to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims. The compensation would have been enormous. How did that old earth song go? _Money, money, money, must be funny in a rich man's world. _Do you think it's cheap, looking like this? Flatness costs a fortune. I am the last human, Master. Me." She looks over at Rose, slowly wheeling over to . "Not that freaky little kid–"

The Master removes his shrink ray from his coat pocket and aims it at Cassandra and presses a button. Cassandra disappears and Rose looks at him eyes wide. "Did you just shrink her?"

"She's a bitchy trampoline." the Master tells her, "She _deserved _it. Don't worry, she'll die in a few minutes."

The Moxx of Balhoon is livid. "Murderer!"

The Master repeats his words from when they first met. "I've been called worse." he says, "Still, I did I just kill the person who was planning to kill you. I accept payment in the form of checks. Make it out to The Master of the TARDIS."

"Temperature rising." the computer's voice rings throughout the hall, "Earth Death in two minutes. Earth Death in two minutes. Heat levels critical. Heat levels critical. Heat levels critical."

Nobody in the room is doing anything useful. The Moxx and the Master are having some sort of staring, no, glaring contest, Jabe is talking with her fellow trees and the other aliens are busy doing their own little things, or panicking. Rose sighs. "EVERYBODY, QUIET!" she shouts, she clears her throat afterwards and adds, softer, "We need a plan. Is there a switch to cool down the ship?" A Cresspallion raises his hand nervously and she remembers what Raffalo told her. They need permission to speak. "Err... Go ahead, talk."

It points at the turning razor sharp fan. "It's on the other side of that, Miss."

She cringes, seeing the series of fans. "Any chance you can turn it off? Make it stop moving?"

"No, Miss." the Cresspallion says, "There's a lever, though, it slows the fans down."

She turns to the Master. "I'll hold down the lever and you go turn off the switch, yeah?" she says, ready to start moving. She suddenly feels a grip on her left arm, and turns around to see one of the solicitors of Jolco and Jolco holding her back.

"I don't trust the two of them together." the alien says, "If the things the Moxx of Balhoon said are true, then I'd rather not leave our fate in the hands of a monster and his accomplice."

She cringes at that and sighs. Jabe suddenly steps forward. "I'll take her place."

Rose looks hopeful and she breaks out into a smile. "Would you, really?" Suddenly she's pulled backwards from the Master, her hand leaving his, and she's handed off into the hands of the brothers Hop Pyleen. "Hey! Let me go!" The Moxx of Balhoon nods his head towards another room, and she feels herself being shoved inside. "Hey!"

The door is closed and she's suddenly aware of how hot it is inside. There's a glass at the top of the door and she looks out of it, shouting, and she feels like she's trapped, just like she was a while ago. She scowls and bangs on the door. "Get the Master over here!" she shouts, and someone hears her and brings the Time Lord to her. Really, it would've been easier to just shout 'Master!', but there is no way she's going to be calling him that any time soon.

"Yes, Rose Tyler?"

"Save the world _or else_."

"Is that supposed to sound threatening?"

She scowls at him. "Yes."

"I can't fathom how you expected that to work." he replies, "You're like a kitten."

Her cheeks flush and she convinces herself it's because of the heat. "Go! Now!" She waits inside the room, sitting down against the door as she waits for it to be opened. She doesn't bother banging on the door, or screaming anymore. This time's different from the last time. This time, she knows that he'll come through for her.

Suddenly, light bursts through the ceiling and starts cracking the glass.

* * *

"External temperature five thousand degrees."

The Master doesn't know why he's doing this. He looks over his shoulder, looking back one last time before continuing to walk towards the razor sharp death that awaits him and he sees his pink and yellow kitten's back against the glass. Right. Still, he walks with Jabe as the latter finds the lever and pushes it down. He looks at the series of fans, contemplating his next actions.

"Time's ticking, Time Lord." Jabe tells him.

Realization dawns on his face. "You're made of wood."

The tree smiles sadly. "Exactly." she says, letting go of the lever for a while. "Before you go in there, I just want to say, I forgive you for blowing up at me." She sounds sincere. Honest. "I can hardly imagine what it must be like to lose your planet, and I _know_ you're not the monster everybody says you are." Everything's quiet for a few seconds before she adds. "Keep your wife around. She's good for you."

His wife? Oh, yes, Rose. He sighs, not really wanting to admit it. "I know." Jabe pushes down on the lever again, and the fans slow down.

He runs past the first. (_The TARDIS says I need you_.) The second. (_It's always better with_ _two_.) The third. (_I hereby deem you my companion.) _The fourth. (_We're both alone. And alone is an awful thing to be._) He hears an explosion coming from the way back and Jabe is no more. He shakes off the feeling and continues as the fans speed up. The fifth. (_Save the world or else._) The sixth. (_You're not just some selfish bastard but deep down you actually care about other people's lives._)

Finally, the seventh. (_She's good for you._)

He flips the switch of the reset breaker.

"Earth death in ten, nine, eight..." he hears the computer say, "...seven, six, five..." He takes a deep breath sincerely hoping that it worked, because he's the Master, things _work _for him, because he makes things work. "...four, three, two, _one_." It starts getting colder in the ship and he lets out the breath he was holding in as the computer starts to announce. "Exoglass repair. Exoglass repair. Exoglass repair."

He exits the fan area and goes back to the main room, where a Cresspalion is letting Rose out of the room she was imprisoned in. She smiles at him from across the room and he nods, offering a silent condolence to Jabe's fellow trees, not willing to say the word 'sorry' out loud. He notices that the Moxx of Balhoon had died due to the heat and the corners of his lips tug up a bit at that. _Good riddance_.

"Shuttles four and six departing. This unit now closing down for maintenance." the computer says. All the different aliens go off, the end of the world is done, and Rose Tyler never got to witness the end of her planet, but she's still found a way to prove herself. _This_ is his companion, he thinks, a slight twinge of pride adding to the array of emotions.

She approaches him. "The end of the Earth. It's gone. We were too busy saving ourselves. No one saw it go. All those years, all that history, and no one was even looking. It's just–"

He extends his hand for her to hold. "Come on." he tells her, "_Now_, we go back to the TARDIS."

* * *

Rose sits down with the Master in the living room of the TARDIS, drumming her fingers against the table in that one-two-three-four beat that the Master's gotten ingrained in her mind. She almost scowls at it, but the beat is somewhat comforting, as it fills the silence while he's in the console room.

"Hi." she hears him say, and she turns to face him.

She grins at him. "Hi." she replies.

He sits down opposite her, one on of the armchairs opposed to the couch that she's sitting on. "Everyone knows that everything has an end, you humans, most of all. It's always the world will end this and the world will end that, but one day, it'll really all be gone." He takes in a deep breath. "I remember what you said about no one looking, and I just want you to know that it went out with a bang. Just like how it started."

"What happened to your planet?" she asks, letting curiosity get the better of her. "The Moxx of Balhoon mentioned that it's gone, now."

He takes in a deep breath and suddenly he's the one drumming his fingers against the armrest of the chair. It's louder and it looks as if he's trying not to explode at her. He refuses to meet her eyes. "He was right." he says, "My planet's gone. I'm the only one left." She stops his fingers from drumming as she reaches forward and grabs that hand, smiling at him comfortingly, or at least she hopes. He looks up and smiles back at her. "You've seen how dangerous it is. Do you want to go home?"

"No." she says, "I don't want to be alone, and neither do you."

"I haven't travelled with anyone in a really long time."

"I haven't travelled with anyone, _ever_." she admits, "What made you start traveling alone? Remember what I said earlier? I ask you something, you can ask me something. Now's your chance to take me up on that offer."

He chuckles softly. "There was someone who travelled with me. Ailla, was her name." he says, "Thought she was human, thought it'd be nice to have someone, turned out she was a spy." He tries to laugh it off, but she feels genuine sympathy for him. She's been betrayed before too.

"Ouch." she says, "Your turn for a question."

"Why'd you come?"

"For the adventure."

"Your life isn't interesting enough?"

She thinks about it, really she does. She thinks about her mum and Mickey and Jimmy Stone and her job at Henrik's. "No," she says finally. "It wasn't." She changes the topic quickly. "What's your real name?"

"The Master."

"I'm not calling you 'Master'."

"It's the name I chose." he says, shrugging. "What would _you _like to be called, Rose Tyler?"

"Y'know, you say my whole name every single time. Isn't it kind of a mouthful? Think of something else, if you like." He looks downright devious at the suggestion. "And you're not allowed to call me kitten or anything of the sort!"

"I like the sound of 'Rose Tyler'." he tells her, and she realizes he's being honest. "Has a nice ring to it, but I s'pose I could always call you Arkytior if I feel like some sort of variation." She raises an eyebrow. "Gallifreyan for 'rose'."

"Gallifrey?" she wonders, "Is that where you're from?"

"Yes." he replies, "But like I said, it's gone now."

"And you're all alone."

"And I'm all alone." he repeats, looking down again sadly.

"'Cept for me."

He grins at her, his entire face lighting up as he looks up, dead into her eye and she feels as if his smile could light up the entire TARDIS and it makes her smile in return. She is going to have an adventure with this man. This completely, utterly, and most certainly frustrating man, who's also the most bloody brilliant person she's met in her entire nineteen years of life, and she knows it's nothing compared to his nine hundred, but it means a lot ot her.

He isn't going to leave her and they're going to have the most wonderful time.

"Except for you, Rose Tyler." he repeats, "Except for you."

* * *

**replies to guest reviews**

***V**:As Time Lords get slightly different personalities as they regenerate, somehow I like to believe that being a psychopath only applied to some of the Master's incarnations. I also like to believe that each regeneration's personality and traits are a result of the last one's time (Nine having a witty facade to cover up his pain from the Time War, which Eight went through. Eleven being more emotionally closed off because of the loss Ten went through, etc.). Right now the Master is _broken_. He didn't fight like the Doctor, he ran away, and he's going to keep on running, with Rose at his side, and though he loathes to admit it, he needs her to fix him. Thank you for reviewing and I'm glad you like it so far. :)) I'm really happy you think I'm staying true to character, it means a lot to me!

***Guest**: This is for the guest who reviewed asking about the Doctor. Thank you! :))) And don't worry, the Doctor is coming and it's going to happen sometime _soon_. If everything goes according to my at-the-moment plans, then we'll get to see both Nine _and_ Ten at some point of this story.

***Guest**: This is for the guest who reviewed pointing out that thing. I'm really glad you like the story, and I hope you like this update! Thanks for pointing that out to me, and I try not to assume the worst, but the implication that somebody copied it _did _sting a bit (don't worry, I don't blame you, if anything I thank you), because that moment was really one of the ones I was proudest to write. :( Anyway, I guess there's nothing I can do about it. Thanks for telling me anyway, and thanks for reviewing!

* * *

**AN**: Thanks for all the reviews! They're wonderful and I appreciate every single bit of them. ~Bell


	4. The Unquiet Dead

**THE UNQUIET DEAD  
chapter iv**

* * *

The TARDIS is in a rather jerky flight, shaking and unstable, but this is something the Master can easily fix, of course.

(Or not.)

Rose Tyler is sitting down in a chair near the console room, munching at chips as she watches the bumpy ride. The Master is running across the console, holding down levers and pushing buttons, and she can barely contain her laughter, the insufferable human that she is. "Need any help?" she asks as she takes another chip and bites into it, the crunching sound barely heard over the sound of the TARDIS.

"I told you already!" he shouts, "I can do this by _myself_!"

"If you say so." she shrugs. She grips to the armrest of her chair as the TARDIS makes another sharp turn, her chips spilling on the floor. He grins. Serves her right, questioning his piloting abilities. He tries reaching across the console to hold something down and he hears her laugh. "You won't be able to reach that!"

"Yes, I will!" he says, punctuating each word as he stretches across the console. He succeeds. "Ha!" Another rapid movement of the TARDIS and his grip slips, as his pink and yellow kitten stands up to hold it down for him. "I could've done that." he mutters, not expecting her to hear him above the sounds the TARDIS was making.

She rolls her eyes. "No, you couldn't have." she says, "Where are we going?"

"1860!"

"Why 1860?!"

"Because!"

He nearly scoffs because this human girl is questioning him and she asked for a time machine, dammit, so she's getting one, past included. (And of course this has nothing to do with the fact that this is the date that the TARDIS is set to, by accident of course, and it's all the way across the console and he can't let go of this button to change it or else the ship will crash.)

The ship crashes anyway and she ends up falling down as he loses his balance and lands on the floor. The TARDIS makes one final movement that causes him to roll to the right, landing right on top of her. He loathes to admit it, but he's the one whose face flushes red, while hers just has a raised eyebrow. He smirks to cover it up and she rolls her eyes. "Think you're getting off of me anytime soon?"

He scowls at her and stands up, dusting off some dirt from his outfit. "There we go." he says, "Step outside and it's 1860. December 24th, to be exact. Go on."

"Oh, Rose, are you all right?" she mocks his accent, before reverting to hers. "Yes, I am, nothing's broken, thanks for asking."

The Master rolls his eyes. "To be fair," he starts, "You didn't ask me if I was okay either."

"What happened to your 'superior Time Lord physiology'?"

She steps out of the TARDIS and he follows her after holding out the door, and immediately a woman passing by points at Rose's outfit and shrieks. He laughs, forgetting about her apparel and shoves her back inside. "Go to the wardrobe find something else to wear or else you'll give some little old lady a heart attack. 1860, remember? Try something Christmas-y."

She makes a somewhat annoyed noise (and she wonders why he considers her a kitten), crossing her arms. "What about you? Don't you need to change?"

He examines his outfit. A simple suit without a tie because ties are _stupid_. He drums his fingers on the console and suddenly he realizes what he should add. "Oh!" he exclaims, "Rose Tyler, bring me a top hat when you come back, will you?"

"Come with me yourself so you can tell me where the bloody wardrobe is!"

He sighs and takes in a deep breath. "First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Now, hurry up, will you?"

She makes a frustrated noise and he can hear her repeating the instructions under her breath, but the TARDIS would probably help her find it considering how much the blue box liked her. He's right. She arrives around twelve minutes after, dressed up with a top hat in her hands. Rose Tyler is wearing a dress black and red in color, with her hair up instead of down, some strands in her hair that he feels the need to push out of her face. It's such a simple dress, but she looks absolutely–

She tosses him the hat and interrupts his train of thought. "Don't laugh."

He's distracted by her and ends up not catching the hat midair, so he bends down to pick it up. "No, no, no, no, no. You look…" he trails off.

"I look what?"

"Fine." he finishes lamely, "You'll fit in just perfectly."

She looks somewhat deflated but he beams at her instead. She walks down some of the steps in the console room and stops next to him looking at him expectantly. "Aren't you going to offer me your arm or something?"

He almost rolls his eyes. "Your Excellency," he tells her, his face a mask of complete seriousness, extending his hand to her. "Would you do me the honor of accompanying me on an adventure?"

Pink tints her cheeks and the Master feels almost too triumphant at being able to make Rose Tyler blush. "If you insist." she replies, taking his hand, and she's smiling so brightly that it's almost blinding. She's swinging their hands back and forth, but it doesn't really bother him as he leads her out the TARDIS door.

As they walk, Rose lets go of his hand and picks up a newspaper before setting it down. "Master? Look at this."

He doesn't look at that, but instead lets a smug but silly grin appear on his face. "You just called me Master!"

Rose Tyler's eyes widen just a bit and her face turns even redder. "Shut it."

"But you did!" he exclaims, "You've never called me 'Master' before."

"Not like you're willing to share a real name," she mutters, "Just give me your real name and I'll call you that, then. See? Problem solved. Look at this." She holds up the newspaper and he pushes it back down.

He doesn't let her change the topic so easily. "Now, why would I give you a different alias for me to go by?" he asks her, "'The Master' is my name." he pauses just for a while as she's looking at him like he's insufferable, which, he has to admit, he is. He adds the last bit a couple seconds after. "And I like it when you say it."

He almost laughs because she looks as if she's choked on air. "Master," she insists, and he lets the smug smile cross his features again, which just causes her to blush harder. "Look. At. The paper."

The Master does look at the paper. He looks up with a slightly less amused expression, still rather glad that Rose Tyler has finally said his name. "What about it?"

"It's not 1860. It's 1869."

"Yes."

"And it's not Naples."

"Yes."

"It's–"

"Cardiff." they finish at the same time, he continues speaking as he leads her into a theater, quickly showing the psychic paper to the usher at the front. "Now, here we go again with the stating the obvious, Rose Tyler," he says, "I was thinking that you had finally undergone some development in the personality section of life."

"...was nothing particular at all about the knocker on the door of this house, but let any man explain to me if he can, how it happened that Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without it's undergoing any intermediate process of change–" the voice from the stage says as they enter the theater and try to find seats, which they luckily do.

"After you, m'lady." he tells her, and she does sit down, and he follows her.

"Scrooge?" she asks him, "As in A Christmas Carol? Which means this is that Charles Dickens bloke, right?" she points at the stage at the man with a slightly scruffy beard telling the story.

"Ah, yes. I suppose it would be, wouldn't it?" he says, "I hated this story."

"Probably because you're a total Grinch." she teases him, "I bet you're the type of person who hates Christmas."

"Of course I do." he says, "What's the point of having one day where everybody is obliged to give gifts to one another? Isn't it much more special if someone comes up to you on any random day of the year, and gives you this wonderful present?"

"Hmm." she considers it, and the fact that she doesn't just laugh it off surprises him. "I guess you're right."

He smirks. "Of course I am."

"–Not a knocker, but Marley's face. Marley's face! It looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look. It looked like..." Suddenly, Dickens stops talking and his face is etched in surprise and confusion, as he points at something in the crowd. "That! It looked exactly like that!" The Master cranes his neck and sees the old lady who's starting to glow and give off a faint green-blue gas. "Oh my lord! What phantasmagoria is this?"

The old lady, who looks very much like a corpse begins to rise and groan as everybody else in the auditorium begin to scream and panic, most of which running out of their seats. Dickens continues, "Stay in your seats, I beg you. It is a lantern show. It's trickery."

"What's happening?" Rose asks as she stands up, ready trying to get a better view of the old woman, when suddenly a bald man in a top hat pushes past the two of them, knocking off the Master's own hat in the process.

A much younger girl in a maid's outfit follows him. "There she is, sir!" the girl exclaims, "There she is!"

"I can see that. The whole blooming world can see that!" the man replies as they rush towards the glowing woman.

The Master can hear the sound of the police blowing their whistles and he grins. "Wonderful." he says, "Just wonderful. Rose Tyler, you go outside, will you? Stall the cops and all that." She nods and runs outside, choosing to fulfill the role of obedient companion rather than be stubborn and hardheaded like she always is, and instead of pleasing him, it somewhat unnerves him. The lady suddenly collapses, but he's running towards Charles Dickens and he doesn't really notice it. He taps Dickens on the shoulder and he turns to face him. "Hello. Did you see where that came from?"

"Ah, the wag reveals himself, does he?" Dickens immediately accuses him, "I trust you're satisfied, sir!"

Out of the corner of his eye, he notices Rose changing the direction that she's running in, to go to the back exit instead of the main one, following the man and the girl from a while ago, who are both carrying the body of the old lady out the theatre. Now _that's_ more like Rose Tyler. "Actually," he replies to Charles, "I _am_ quite amused."

"Your tomfoolery has cost me my show!"

He makes a _tsk, tsk_ sound at the author and wags his finger disapprovingly. "Just because it amuses me doesn't mean it is my prank. Now, did it say anything?" he asks out of pure curiosity, because this looks like a ghost story which really means it's just alien, and he's wondering what Cardiff 1869 could possible have in store for him. "Does it even speak?" The blue entity that escaped from the woman flies into a gaslight and suddenly it all clicks. "Ah. Got it. Gaseous being."

He starts walking outside the theater, after Charles Dickens tries to escape the auditorium and as he does he catches the ending bit of Rose Tyler confronting the two from a while ago. "–dead! What did you do to–" Rose is suddenly cut off.

"What did you do that for?" he hears the maid ask.

"She knows too much!" the man replies hastily, "Help me get her in the hearse and pick up her legs. Come on, Gwyneth! Godspeed!"

By the time he's made it past the crowd, pushing past every single person, not caring if any of them have fallen to the ground or not and he catches the briefest glimpse of an unconscious pink and yellow kitten before their hearse starts to move. "Rose!"

Dickens grabs his arms and he turns to the author abruptly, anger in his eyes. "You're not escaping me, sir. What do you know about that hobgoblin, hmm? Projection on glass, I suppose. Who put you up to it?"

"I told you, it's not my prank!" he snaps. Rose Tyler is in danger. Rassilon, _Rose Tyler_ is in danger and this author cares about the mysterious blue entity that interrupted his performance. What screwed up priorities. He promptly enters a random carriage and exclaims, "Follow that hearse!"

"I can't do that, sir." the driver replies.

His glare has turned murderous and he asks his next question in a rather quiet yet threatening manner. "Why. Not?"

"I'll tell you why not. I'll give you a very good reason why not. This is _my_ coach." Dickens proclaims, "Explain to me what has happened?"

"Not until we start to follow that bloody hearse!"

The author gets into the carriage with him. "What's so important about it? Who is in it?"

"A..." and in that moment, he's unsure of what to refer to Rose Tyler as, because by now, he guesses she's much more than just a companion to travel with. "Friend." he finishes, resolutely. "She's in danger and your driver doesn't want to get this carriage moving and help her!" his volume increases with the last bit, remembering the predicament that Rose has gotten herself into.

"Why are we wasting my time, then? This is much more important, but I do expect answers. Driver, be swift! The chase is on!"

"Yes, sir!" the driver replies, and the carriage starts moving immediately.

"In the meantime," Dickens says, "Would you _please_ care to tell me what happened during my..."

The Master looks at him dead in the eye, still somewhat worried and still definitely furious. _Does it fucking _look _like I want to talk about that right now? _His gaze seems to ask, and the author falters under its intensity. The sound of the horse's hooves on the pavement almost matches the sound of the drums in his head, which only get louder and louder and louder and louder.

Dickens gains some courage and continues to pester him. "I said I'd bring you to your friends in exchange for answers, sir!"

"Look," the Master says, facing him. "I'm not exactly your number one fan–"

Dickens interrupts his statement. "Of course you aren't." he says, "How exactly are you a fan? In what way do you resemble a means of keeping oneself cool?"

"Shortened form of fanatic. Whatever." the Master clarifies, waving his hand dismissively, "Point is, if I didn't get that point across earlier, my friend has a knack for getting herself into danger, and I have a knack of saving her life, which I'd very much rather do right now." _That is_, he thinks to himself, _if she doesn't save herself first._

The moment he spots the Chapel of Rest and he deems it near enough, he jumps out of the carriage even if he knows it's still moving, surprisingly landing pretty well. He knocks on the door to the beating of the drums in his head, and he knocks hard.

'Gwyneth' answers soon enough. "I'm sorry, sir. We're closed."

Dickens is behind him in a few seconds. "Nonsense. Since when did an Undertaker keep office hours? The dead don't die on schedule. I demand to see your master."

"He's not in, sir." she replies, meekly.

"I'm awfully sorry, Mister Dickens, but the master's indisposed."

"I am _the_ Master." the Time Lord clarifies, "And I suggest that you step aside right now unless you want to be the next dead body in this chapel." he threatens her, and she seems to shrink into her shell even more. A gas lamp suddenly flares and he points at it. "That. How long's it been happening?"

He pushes past her and he can vaguely hear Dickens' disbelief. "What the Shakespeare is going on?"

"You're not allowed inside, sir!" Gwyneth protests.

"As you can see, I have a talent for doing what I'm not allowed to do."

"Open the door! Please, please let me out!"

Suddenly, he hears Rose Tyler and he smiles a bit at that, mostly just glad that she's still alive. "Rose Tyler banging on a door, screaming for help, and demanding to be let out," he says, mock-thoughtfully, "Now, where have I seen this before?"

"Not funny, Master! Unlock the door right now!"

"And there you go using my name again. Wonderful." he says, trying to lighten the mood just a little bit, because surely, whatever's in there can't be that bad, right?

He hears Rose scream. (Wrong.)

Suddenly, the man from earlier makes an appearance, joining them in the hallway. So much for 'being indisposed'. "How dare you, sir," he tells Dickens, "This is my house!"

"Shut up!" the Master shouts, close to panicking because Rose is in there and he knows that maybe before this wouldn't have bothered him much but it's all her fault, blundering into his life and now being _alone _is not a desirable option anymore. "Where's the key to this door?" Gwyneth scampers off to find it, presumably, but she's taking too long.

The Master forgets about his Tissue Compression Eliminator, and even if he remembered it he still wouldn't have shrunk the door.

Instead, he kicks it down.

He's met with the site of a corpse grabbing Rose and it's in that moment he remembers his TCE and uses it immediately. (Later, of course, he'll realize that this probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, nonetheless the gaseous beings leave the corpse and go back into the gas lamp.

He hears whispers as some enter another body. "Failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!" and the rest join its 'family' in the gas lamp and promptly disappear.

The Master looks at Rose Tyler before anything else. "Hello. Getting yourself into trouble again, just like always."

She smiles, the fear fading off of her face. "Hello." she says, sticking out her tongue at the corner of her smile, like always. "While you take impossibly long to help me again, I see."

* * *

"First of all you drug me, then you kidnap me, and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man–"

"I won't be spoken to like this!"

"Then you stuck me in a room full of zombies! And if that ain't enough, you swan off and leave me to die! So come on, talk!"

He chuckles a bit at that. _Now, _that's_ my companion_, he thinks to himself proudly. He raises an eyebrow when Rose mentions that Sneed's (as he learned was the name of the man) hands were 'having a quick wander', but he dismisses it as nothing, really and he takes another sip from the cuppa that Gwyneth has poured for him. ("No sugar at all, sir," she had told him, still kind of afraid of him. "This is how you like it, yes?" And he nodded because it's true; he likes it strong.)

"It's not my fault. It's this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted." Sneed says, seriously, "But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs, the er, dear departed started getting restless."

Dickens lets out a _pfft_ sound. "Tommyrot."

"You witnessed it. Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps." Sneed adds, hastily, after Dickens expressed his disbelief. "One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned."

"Morbid fancy." Dickens dismisses it once more.

"You were _there_." the Master says, frustrated with the author's skepticism about the whole thing. And here he was thinking that he had met one of the most brilliant men in all of history. "Isn't that enough proof? Or is it still not good enough the oh-so wonderful Charles Dickens?"

"I saw nothing but an illusion."

"Still denying it? Don't waste my time. Shut up." the Master says bluntly, turning back to Sneed. "The gas, though. It's been flaring. What's with that?"

"That's new, sir. Never seen anything like that." Sneed replies.

"Rift's getting bigger." Rose sends him a questioning look and he sighs and explains to the lesser minds in the room. "It's this weak point between time and space, sort of like a gateway between one world and another." He grins as he adds, as an afterthought, "It's the reason ghost stories exist." It's at this point Dickens leaves the room, huffing in frustration.

"Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine." Sneed says, quietly.

The Master shrugs and stands to go see where Dickens has gone off to, and eventually finds the man looking at the coffin of the corpse from a while ago, Redpath. "You won't find any strings there." he says.

"Wires, perhaps. There must be some mechanism behind this fraud."

"You really _are_ quite daft, are you?"

Dickens looks indignant at the suggestion. "Excuse me, sir!"

He rolls his eyes. "Come on!" he says, "I thought you would be open-minded about these things, but _no_. Even when you've witnessed it with your own very eyes you refuse to believe that something is wrong with this house, and maybe, just maybe, it's something supernatural." he argues, "So, _please_ _enlighten me _on why you're being so _fucking_ difficult!"

The author is surprised at his language, and the Master realizes that maybe 1869 isn't the right time to curse, but really he doesn't care. Dickens sighs, resigned. "Can it be that I have the entire world wrong?" he asks, in a small voice.

"Oh, that's just wonderful. You're throwing yourself a pity party because you're _not_ the smartest man in the universe after all. Is that really so hard to believe, Charles?"

"I loved an illusion as much as the next man, reveled in them, but that's exactly what they were, illusions. The real world is something else. I dedicated myself to that. Injustices, the great social causes. I hoped that I was a force for good." Dickens tells him, looking honest. " Now you tell me that the real world is a realm of specters and jack-o'-lanterns, and you're asking me if it's hard to believe?"

"That's exactly what I'm asking you. Is it _that_ hard to believe something you've seen with your very eyes?" the Master asks, "You checked the coffin. No strings, no wires."

"Then have I wasted my brief span, here?" he asks, "Has it all been for nothing?"

The Master is very tempted to reply with _yes_, but this man's books _last_ and he knows that saying so would be a lie. "Every life amounts to _something_," he points out, "Everyone makes an impact in their own way."

"Although my impact would be somewhat miniscule on the grand scale of things, wouldn't it?"

"That entirely depends on you. Now, stop being so bloody stupid, Charlie."

"Nobody calls me Charlie."

"Of course not." the Master says sarcastically.

When he arrives back in the living room, Sneed tells him that Rose is helping Gwyneth out with washing up, and he nearly snorts because she doesn't _need_ to help people. By the time he finds the pantry, he almost announces himself immediately, but stops when he hears Gwyneth talk.

"You're from London. I've seen London in drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about half naked, for shame." he nearly laughs at the last bit, but he knows that this girl is afraid of him (she has good reason to be), and if he would interrupt then she would stop talking. She trusts Rose. Why is it that everyone trusts Rose? "And the noise, and the metal boxes racing past, and the birds in the sky, no, they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying." How could Gwyneth know that? The airplane won't be invented for a couple more decades. "And you, you've flown so far. Further than anyone. The things you've seen. The darkness, the big bad wolf. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, miss."

"Big bad wolf?" he mouths to himself, dwelling on that bit more than he should, because he knows that the important thing here is that this girl is either looking into Rose Tyler's mind, or that she can see the future. She doesn't look alien, but then again, he doesn't either.

"It's all right." he hears Rose reply.

"I can't help it. Ever since I was a little girl, my mam said I had the sight. She told me to hide it."

"Don't." the Master says, and silently curses himself for not keeping his mouth shut. He almost smirks, though, when he hears a plate shatter on the ground, most probably the one that Gwyneth was putting away. "It's getting stronger, isn't it?" Gwyneth nods shyly, backing away from him. "Of course it is!" he exclaims, "You grew on top of rift!"

"E-Excuse me, sir?"

"You have any idea how to talk to the dead?" he asks, "No need to use a Ouija Board or anything, but do you have any idea at all? A séance of sorts."

Gwyneth is shaking and Rose taps him on the arm, and he turns to face her. "I think you're scaring her." she whispers.

He scoffs. "I'm not scaring her." he replies, "I already did. It was while you were busy almost dying."

Rose Tyler snorts. "Figures." she lays her hand on Gwyneth's arm and gives her this compassionate, reassuring look that makes him want to throw up. "_Do_ you know how to do one, Gwyneth? A séance? You'd be able to help us very much."

She nods. "Yes, miss Rose." she says, "Come, we can perform one in the living room." Gwyneth leads the way and Rose looks at him somewhat triumphantly.

"Now _that's_ how you get someone to help you. Remember what I said about being nice?"

The Master scowls at his companion. "Okay, fine. So I scared her. Sometimes it's _good_ to scare people, you know."

"And sometimes," she retorts, "It's good to be _kind_. Why are you helping these people in the first place anyway? I thought that goes against everything you stand for."

"I'm curious." he replies instantly, "It's like solving a mystery."

She starts to walk, following Gwyneth and he walks beside her. "So, you're just going to play Sherlock Holmes until you find out what's causing the dead to come back to life, then you're not going to help them?"

"Knowing you, I'm in store for a ten minute long lecture about this, aren't I?"

"You _should_ help them."

"I don't really do what I should do." he says, "'Sides. It's just the rift, nothing major. The world isn't ending this time. And if it is," he shrugs, "Well, Rose Tyler will be there to defend it."

"You'll be there too." she points out.

"Of course I'll be there." he tells her, "You're useless on your own."

He means it as a joke of sorts, but maybe it's three percent truth to him, and he's glad when Rose Tyler does nothing but laugh. "Are you sure the rift isn't anything serious?" she asks as they near the living room.

"Positive." he replies.

"Gather around the table, please, everybody." Gwyneth instructs, and everyone does so. The Master finds himself in between Rose and Sneed. "This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in big town. Come, we must all join hands."

Dickens stands, disconnecting his hands from Gwyneth and Sneed's. "I can't take part in this."

The Master looks at him and raises an eyebrow. "What happened to not being a stupid dunce, Charlie?"

"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask. Séances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeezebox concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing."

"But, you know what?" the Master asks, rhetorically, "She's still being more open-minded than you are, and that says a lot. At least _she_ actually has a brain." Dickens glares at him and sits down again. "There we go. Gwyneth? Start. Now."

Gwyneth takes a deep breath. "Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden."

He rolls his eyes and almost scoffs at the words that Gwyneth is using, but then the whispering starts. Dickens gives him a pointed look after his eye roll, accusing him of hypocrisy, most probably, but suddenly his expression shifts to that of alarm.

"Can you hear that?" Rose asks.

He sends her a look, and he hopes he gets the message across because _of course everyone can hear that, Rose Tyler_, _what do you think?_ "Look at her."

"I see them. I feel them." Gwyneth says, stuttering a bit as she takes another deep breath to calm herself. Gas tendrils begin to drift above their heads and Gwyneth continues to speak. "I can't hear them."

Sneed looks to him expectantly for an answer to this and he sighs. "They can't get through the rift."

He can vaguely hear Sneed in the background. ("Do we even _want_ this creatures to get through this so-called rift?") He's focusing on Rose and what she's saying quietly to Gwyneth. If it weren't for his superior hearing, he wouldn't have heard it at all. "You can do it, Gwyn," she says, using a somewhat affectionate nickname. "Help them cross the rift."

Gwyneth takes another deep breath and suddenly blue outlines of people appear behind her. "Great God!" Sneed exclaims, "Spirits from the other side!" _Idiot_. And he was so sure that he thought that bit, but it seems he had spoken out loud based on the glare Sneed is giving him and the smile Rose is trying to conceal.

"Identify yourself." the Master says.

"We are the Gelth." the figures speak, and Gwyneth as well. "Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us." The _Gelth_! Of course. "The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge."

"What for?" he asks.

"We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction. Once we had a physical form like you, but then the war came. The Time War. The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state."

The last of their kind, the Master muses. A twinge of pity adds to his emotions, his curiosity finally quenched. They're the last of their kind, the same way he is the last of his. There's no more Theta or Romana or anybody else. And he _knows_ Rose Tyler is there for him, but she's _human_. It's not the same.

Then, suddenly, the thought hits him.

That's why they need the corpses!

Either he's spoken out loud or the Gelth know what he's thinking, because they answer. "We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste. Give them to us."

"No." it's Rose who speaks and he looks at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Rose Tyler," he begins, "It makes perfect sense. It's not like you _need_ the dead anymore."

"But, but, but it's not–"

"I don't give a flying fuck about what's nice." It's then he realizes; he _pities_ the Gelth. _Rassilon_, what's happened to him? It's not like they're helping him in return, he doesn't have a single thing to gain from this. But then, he thinks, if there was even the slightest chance that Gallifrey and all its inhabitants could return, he'd want outside help too.

"Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth."

Gwyneth collapses and falls on the table.

"All true." he hears Dickens mutter, "It's all _true_."

* * *

"Oh, so you just _hate_ saving the world," Rose Tyler says, "But when strange blue things want to possess the dead and bring everyone back to life as _zombies_ it's _perfectly_ okay. I'm starting to think that you're fine with playing hero. It's just Earth and humans that you find disgusting."

"Humans are nothing but apes." he argues, "You sleep and you drool and you laze around at home and eat chips. Can you honestly blame me if I find you lot disgusting?"

"Excuse me, sir," Sneed interrupts, "But did you just say that you're _not_ human?"

Gwyneth wakes up with a start and Rose immediately rushes to her side. "It's okay," she says, "You can sleep."

"But my angels, miss. They came, didn't they? They need me?"

The Master speaks before Rose can. "Pity them, Gwyneth. Pity the Gelth." he says, mocking the aliens' words. "To put it in a way your tiny brain can understand, you're their last chance at survival."

"I've told you, leave her alone." Rose glares at him, "She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles. Drink this." She hands Gwyneth a cup of tea and smile reassuringly before narrowing her eyes at him again.

"Well, what did you say?" Sneed asks, "Explain it again. What are they?"

"None of your damn business." he says, the exact same time Rose says, "Aliens." He rolls his eyes at Rose's openness and honesty, and continues. "By aliens, she means foreigners. Foreigners who need the girl to stabilize."

"Using the dead bodies." Dickens realizes, sitting down. "It finally makes sense now."

Rose is quick to defend. "You can't let them run around inside of dead people."

"Oh, believe me, I _can_." the Master replies, "It's like that silly human thing you do. What's it called? Reduce, reuse–"

"It's _nothing_ like recycling!"

"There we go! Recycling!" he says, clasping his hands together. "Exactly. You don't need those bodies anymore. They're just going to rot in the ground and turn to ash, leaving nothing but bones, but they can serve a _better_ purpose."

"It's just wrong. Those bodies were living people. We have to respect them. Even in death."

"Rose Tyler, what was it you said on Platform Five?" he asks, "Oh, yes. _Don't argue with the designated driver_. Get used to _my_ type of morality, or our next trip will be the Powell Estate, year 2005."

"Sorry," Dickens interrupts, "But did you just say year 2005?"

He ignores the author. "You know what, Rose?" he asks, "Why don't we ask _Gwyneth_ what she wants to do? You've just been harping about this and that and making all her decisions for her." he turns to the maid, "Gwyneth. An entire species depends on you. Make your choice."

"That's not fair!" Rose exclaims, "You're pressuring her!"

Gwyneth thinks about it for a moment. "I want to help my angels." The Master smirks triumphantly. He's won. Now it's time for Rose Tyler to give up and accept the fact that sometimes things aren't all sunshine and rainbows.

"Look, you don't understand what's going on." Rose tries to argue.

Gwyneth sends her a pointed look. "You would say that, miss, because that's very clear inside your head, that you think I'm stupid." He laughs and Gwyneth finally grows a backbone and turns to him, exclaiming, "_You_ do _too_! And I didn't even have to look into your head to see that, sir!"

"True." he says, "Very true."

"This is my decision." Gwyneth says, calming down. "Here and now, I know my own mind, and the angels need me. What do I have to do? They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me."

"Wonderful." he says, turning to Rose to send her a gloating look. He turns to Sneed. "What's the spookiest part of the house? The one with all the ghosts?"

"The morgue." Sneed replies immediately.

Rose is still annoyed with him but she sighs anyway. "No chance you were going to say gazebo, is there?"

* * *

The basement is dark and cold.

Rose Tyler trips on a step and he offers his hand to her, but she shakes it off immediately and he can feel her glare even if there isn't enough light to see her face. "The Gelth don't succeed." she mutters to him, "I know for a fact there weren't any corpses walking around in 1869."

"And _I_ know for a fact that I'm smarter than you." he replies, "So you better believe me when I tell you that anything can change. Time's weird like that."

"I think the room's getting colder." Dickens remarks.

"Here they come." Rose mutters, rolling her eyes.

The blue figures come out of the gas lamp and illuminate the room just a bit. "My name is the Doctor." he says, "And I seek audience with the Gelth."

Rose Tyler nudges him on the shoulder and whispers in his ear. "You're not the _Doctor_."

He whispers back. "Want a repeat of what happened on Platform Five?" he keeps the sentence as short as possible but he knows that she knows he's talking about when everybody recognized him for who he is and tried to kill him. He grimaces at the memory, but cracks a smile when he remembers the Moxx's burnt body.

"Praise the Doctor!" the Gelth exclaim, "The Doctor, the man who makes things better. Praise him! Praise him! You have come to help!"

Rose raises an eyebrow and he can tell it's because she's wondering what Theta did to merit such a good reputation, and him, a bad one. "Promise you won't hurt her." she says, before turning to Gwyneth. "You don't have to do this."

"Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth."

"My angels. I can help them live." Gwyneth exclaims.

"Stand under the arch." the Gelth instruct, "Hurry!" Gwyneth does as told. "Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!"

"Angels! I can see you! I can see you! Please, come, angels! Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!" Gwyneth opens her mouth suddenly, and blue gas comes out. Suddenly, a blue apparition turns red and bares its teeth.

"The Gelth will come through in force."

Dickens looks horrified. "You said you were few in number!"

"A few _billion_." the Gelth reply, "All in need of corpses."

The Gelth fly into the dead bodies in the morgue, and each of them stand, white sheets falling to the ground. The Master lets out a shout of frustration. He trusted them! He _pitied_ them! _This_ is what emotion does to people.

"Gwyneth, stop this." Sneed commands, "Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you–" A corpse grabs the man, snaps his neck and Sneed is no more as blue gas flies into his mouth.

He immediately grabs the Tissue Compressor Eliminator in his suit pocket and aims it at the corpses, his arm shaking. He doesn't hesitate in aiming it at Sneed and the corpse that killed the man, and pressing the button. The gas entities fly out of the corpses and into another two. He readily aims it at another group of the walking dead but in the corner of his eye he notices Rose being grabbed by one and she puts up a good fight so the corpse lets her go, and he's somewhat proud of her before another one, that of a rather big man, approaches her from behind and covers her mouth and nose, attempting to suffocate her. She struggles, but she's weak and he's ready to aim his eliminator at _that_ zombie.

Until he notices it's no longer in his hands. One of the corpses had knocked it out of his hands while he was distracted.

The drums get louder in his head. _Pity, love, compassion, these emotions will be your undoing_, a voice in his head tells him.

"Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth." they say. He barely notices Dickens running out of the house. _Coward_, he thinks.

He suddenly feels Rose grabbing his hand and shutting them both behind a metal gate to keep away from the corpses. "I can't die." she says, her voice cracking. "Tell me I can't. I haven't even been born yet. It's impossible for me to die. Isn't it?"

He's silent for a few seconds. "It's a possibility."

"But it's 1869. How can I die now?"

"Because you agreed to come with me," he replies, frustrated. He's frustrated with the fact that there's no chance of him to escape. He's frustrated with the fact he let emotions get the better of him. And he's frustrated with the fact that although he thought Charles Dickens was a coward just a minute earlier, he's no better than he is, always running away. "You _idiot_. You should've stayed with that boyfriend of yours and lived out your life and forgot about me, but no, you came anyway."

"You wouldn't take no for an answer." she says, then adds, "And I wanted to come anyway. We'll go down fighting, yeah?" This is a chance to fight. This is a chance not to run away. He nods. "I'm glad I met you."

He doesn't reply, but he knows that deep down, he's glad that he met her too.

Dickens runs into the room. It's time for the coward to redeem himself, he thinks. "Doctor! Doctor!" And at first he's confused, but then he realized that he used Thete's title to introduce himself to the Gelth, and Dickens must've assumed that's the right thing to call him. " Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!"

Fill the room with gas and it will draw them out of the host. Suck them into the air like poison from a wound! "It's just what I was going to do." he replies. (It wasn't.) The corpses leave the Master and Rose, and start walking towards Dickens.

"I hope, oh Lord, I hope that this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately." Dickens says. The Master reaches his hand out of the bars keeping him and Rose Tyler separate from the rest of the room and rips a gas pipe from the wall. The Gelth start to leave the corpses and he laughs triumphantly. "It's working!"

Rose immediately rushes to Gwyneth. "Gwyn? Gwyneth! They lied, Gwyneth! Send them–" his friend immediately starts a coughing fit, and she turns to face him. "I can't breathe."

He turns to Dickens. "Get her out of here. Now!"

"They're liars?" Gwyneth asks, a confused expression crossing her face.

"Yes, they are!" the Master exclaims, "Send them back through the rift, Gwyneth! A _completely_ _different_ species is depending on you now: your own. Just, send them back through the rift."

"I can't send them back. But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out." Gwyneth suddenly takes a matchbox out of her apron pocket and he can vaguely hear Rose shouting that she can't in the background.

"What happened to getting the fuck out, Rose Tyler?" he asks, "Go! _Now!_" When she doesn't move, Dickens grabs her hand and brings her out of the room. He smiles gratefully. He notices that Gwyneth isn't moving and he feels for a pulse in her wrist, then her neck.

He finds none.

He doesn't say thank you. She's not sacrificing any life to save them. She's been dead for at least a few minutes now.

"Do what you have to do." he says, instead.

The Master runs out of the house just as it goes _ka-boom_.

* * *

He shakes his head when Rose asks him if Gwyneth made it. "Of course she didn't," he says, and she deflates even more. "If it helps, she was already dead. Ever since the moment she stood in the arch."

"But she can't have. She spoke to us. She helped us. She saved us. How could she have done that?" she asks.

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Dickens quotes, before turning to him. "Even for you."

"She saved the world." she says, "A servant girl. No one will ever know."

The Master grabs Rose Tyler's hand and faces Dickens. "Right then, Charlie, I've just got to go."

The author nods. "What are you going to do now?" Rose says.

"I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital." he replies. He can sees Rose Tyler smile at that, and the happiness is somewhat contagious. Still, he quickly wipes the smile of his face. No use getting attached to her now. " This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions. I'm inspired. I must write about them."

"Do you think that's wise?" Rose asks, worried.

"I shall be subtle at first. The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth."

"But–"

He cuts Rose off. "Good luck then. Nice meeting you, Charlie. We best be off." he shakes Dickens' hand and Rose leans in to kiss Charlie's cheek.

"Oh, my dear. How modern. Thank you, but, I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?"

"Away." the Master replies.

"Upon my soul, it's one riddle after another with you." Dickens says, "But after all these revelations, there's one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this. Who are you?"

"You don't need to know that."

"But you have such knowledge of future times. I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Do they last?"

The author looks so hopeful and so vulnerable in this very moment and the Master supposes there can't be anything wrong with telling the truth just this once. "They will." he says, honestly, "Forever. Now, come along, Rose Tyler."

Rose waves bye at Dickens, who has rushed off, most probably to his mail coach as the pair make their way back into the TARDIS. "Doesn't that change history if he writes about blue ghosts?" Rose asks.

"He dies next year and never finishes that book."

"Oh, he was nice." Rose says, but he's not really minding her anymore. The TARDIS is in a less jerky flight now, thank Rassilon for that, and he's pressing the different buttons and setting the date. He drums his fingers on the console as he waits for them to land. "Where are we going now?"

"Back."

"Back where?"

"The Powell Estate, 2005." he replies, just as the TARDIS lands, "Go _home_, Rose Tyler."

The Master doesn't want to let her go, honestly. He wants to be selfish and keep her with him and never bring her back. But today is just another example of how his emotions are going to get the better of him. Today is just another example of why he should travel _alone_.

Rose Tyler freezes in her spot. "_What_?"

* * *

**replies to guest reviews**

***V**: You have a very good point there, and I'll try to keep it in mind. Thank you for the constructive criticism, I really appreciate it. :))

* * *

**AN**: Thanks for all the reviews, follows, and favorites! They're wonderful and I appreciate every single bit of them. I'm sorry for the late update, my internet has been crashing lately, but I hope that you enjoyed it. It's 2000 words longer than the norm though, so I hope that counts for something! Anyway, thank you again, and if you liked it, please leave a review.


	5. Aliens of London

**ALIENS OF LONDON  
chapter v**

* * *

_The TARDIS is in a less jerky flight now, thank Rassilon for that, and he's pressing the different buttons and setting the date. He drums his fingers on the console as he waits for them to land. "Where are we going now?"_

_"The Powell Estate, 2005." he replies, just as the TARDIS lands, "Go _home_, Rose Tyler."_

_The Master doesn't want to let her go, honestly. He wants to be selfish and keep her with him and never bring her back. But today is just another example of how his emotions are going to get the better of him. Today is just another example of why he should travel alone._

_"What?"_

This actually cannot be happening.

She hears the Master's voice a few moments later, after a rather uncomfortable silence. "Yes, it can."

Rose didn't realize she had spoken that out loud, but she doesn't really care at this point. "You're just taking me home." she deadpans, her face, impassive. "You're taking me home to the _Powell Estate _when you could be taking me to some far off alien planet on the other end of the universe." She laughs, genuinely yet unsurely at the same time. "This is a joke, right? Or just a quick visit to Mum–?"

"A _permanent _visit to your mother." he amends, waving his hand dismissively and Rose feels like her heart just got caught in her throat. She tries approaching him, grabbing his hand, and she notices that his eyes are dark and cold and serious, with just the tiniest bit of something else mixed in there too. He shakes off her touch and she flinches as he turns around, hiding his face. "Don't you see? We had our fun, and now I don't want you anymore. I set the time to twelve hours after you originally left. Just say you were at a sleepover or something."

The words sting badly, and for a few seconds she remembers Jimmy Stone and she shuts her eyes at the thought, trying to wish the memories away. If he doesn't want her anymore, who is she to hang around? Rose Tyler is strong, and she is not going to get hurt from a man who treats her like dirt, _again_. She shrugs in what she hopes is a nonchalant manner. "Okay then."

He turns back to face her very abruptly after that. "What?"

"I said it's fine." she says, "You don't want me to hang around, I don't want to either anyway." She thanks her lucky stars for how convincing she is. "I mean, I miss home so much–" Not exactly a lie. "–and sometimes being at home _is_ better than always traveling to places where mad aliens may want to kill me. And normally I wouldn't mind, but the person who's supposed to be saving me isn't doing a great job." She's already walking, having reached the door of the TARDIS and she doesn't want to face him, but she just hopes that he's hurt about this too.

"Exactly why I want you gone, Rose Tyler." he replies, being very cool about the whole thing and she curses him for it. "You always need saving, why on earth would I want someone who'll just act as dead weight, when I could have anyone in the whole, wide–"

She shuts the door before he can finish the sentence.

When Rose arrives at her house, she's trying to wipe away the few tears that have fallen with her jacket sleeve. The Master's being a right git, but _still_. She had the entire universe to see and now she's back at the Powell Estate. She doesn't succeed that much, because there are still smudges of mascara around her eyes, so one look at her and Jackie would know that she was crying.

She uses her key to open the door and walks inside, and is greeted by the sight of a bunch of papers scattered on the table and on the floor surrounding it. POLICE APPEAL FOR ASSISTANCE. CAN YOU HELP? it says, ROSE TYLER HAS BEEN MISSING FROM HER HOME ON THE POWELL ESTATE SINCE 6TH MAR–

She's panicking already when she hears glass shatter. Her mum is standing by the doorway to the kitchen before running towards her and enveloping her in a tight hug. "You're here! You're really here! It's you!"

"It's me." she says, her voice cracking just a bit because her heart is still in her throat.

Her mum notices the smudges of make-up on her face, and her rather messy hair (running away from the Gelth with Charles Dickens must've messed it up somehow) and immediately goes on full protective mother mode. "Where were you, Rose?" she asks, still not letting go of her daughter. "The hours I've sat here, days and weeks and months, all on my own. I thought you were dead!"

"I'm not, Mum, I'm not." she says, giving her mum's hand a reassuring squeeze. "I'm here. I'm alive."

"Where were you?" Jackie repeats.

She runs through the possible answers in her head. A night at Shareen's was hardly an acceptable answer now. "Traveling." she says instead, hoping that she's lucky enough for it to work.

The older Tyler raises an eyebrow. "Your passport still in your drawer!" she exclaims, "Please don't lie to me, Rose."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." she tells her, "Just _trust _me on this one, okay? I'm so sorry. I never thought that it would take this long, but there are just so many things to see."

"So many things to see, that you didn't have enough time for more than just one phone call? One phone call. Just to know that you were alive. Did you even think about me at all?"

Rose winces, feeling guiltier than she's ever been in her entire life. She sits down on the couch and her mum sits down next to her. She leans her head atop Jackie's shoulder and talks in a quiet voice. "Of course I did." she says, immediately. "All the time, Mum. I'm sorry, I really, really am."

"Do you know, what terrifies me is that you still can't say. What happened to you, Rose? What can be so bad that you can't tell me, sweetheart? Where were you?" Jackie asks, "You've been crying. Did somebody hurt you? I swear to God, I'll give them a good old Tyler slap the moment I see them if you just tell me–"

"It doesn't matter." Rose replies, "The point is, I'm here with you _now_. Isn't that enough?"

"I love you," her mum says instead, "And one day, when you're ready, you'll promise to tell me, won't you?"

"'Course I will." she says, and this is a promise that she'll keep. One day, Jackie Tyler will know about the blue box that's bigger on the inside and the madman who lived in it, and all the things that he and his companion saw, Rose swears it. She'll know about Cardiff and Gelth, and how their last phone call took place five billion years into the future during the end of the planet. "Now's just not the time."

* * *

The TARDIS won't budge. It's funny, considering that the blue box let him bring Rose Tyler to her destination in the first place. Really, if she didn't want the kitten to leave that badly she could've set their course to somewhere like Gadrahadradon, but the TARDIS is _staying_ put. When he exits the police telephone box, he notices the words BAD WOLF spray painted across it and is amused, sort of. Of course someone had to vandalize the second most amazing being in all of the universe. The first, being him of course.

The Master would have to fix that Chameleon Arch sometime soon. He never understood what Theta found so appealing about its appearance. He'd have a lot of free time now, of course, without any annoying human to annoy him all the time. He'd finally have some semblance of quiet; there's no chance of true peace until that incessant drumming goes away. He hates to admit it, but Rose Tyler's voice made the drums sound just a little bit softer. They'd still be there of course, but they'd become something far off in the distance that you could easily ignore.

The realization hits him like a ton of bricks.

He got attached to a _human_.

Rassilon, help him.

He's ready to walk to the Powell Estate and get back what's his but he doesn't. He's not going to say sorry, he'll never apologize. She'll come running back soon enough, though, he's one hundred percent sure of it. And Rose Tyler shouldn't come back to the TARDIS anyway. There's no way that she's ever going to die (or come close to dying) because of him ever again. He's not going to waste a regeneration dying for a silly ape either, which is all the more reason why he shouldn't get attached, but he acknowledges silently to himself that he already has.

Emotions got the better of him (_are _getting the better of him) and he hates himself for it.

After drumming his fingers on the exterior of the TARDIS a few times, he comes to a decision. No, he's not going to go and get Rose Tyler. Yes, he'll keep her if she decides to come back.

Before he could waste anymore thoughts on a stupid human girl, a horn sounds and a shadow appears. He looks up and sees a spaceship just as Big Ben chimes once. He can't see anything else because of the buildings blocking the view, but after a while he starts to see black smoke float in the sky.

He rolls his eyes and realizes that maybe _this_ is the reason why the TARDIS is staying put, refusing to go anywhere but London. He steps inside the time machine again and sets the coordinates to the street in front of the clock tower, where soldiers have already began to gather. "Get back!" they say, "Get back!"

He cranes his neck for a better view, and he gets one. Does he recognize the ship? No. Does he know why it crashed? No. He grins a bit to himself. He's always loved a good mystery, and now it seems that he's gotten one.

Another man gets out of the car near him and sighs. "Just my luck." he says in a Northern accent, presumably because of all the soldiers blocking the way. "Best watch it on the TV instead."

"Wonderful!" he exclaims suddenly, startling the man in the leather jacket. He doesn't mind at all and instead runs back to the TARDIS, and goes inside, straight to the living room where he's bound to find an Earth channel on the telly. Instead, he finds the telly gone from its usual place. "I need an earth television!" he shouts, looking up to the ceiling, knowing that he could just think it, but he doesn't care. "Now!"

The TARDIS responds with a shaky movement that causes him to fall down on his bum. He stands up and rushes to the console room, and he finds the location set to the Powell Estate. "No!" he shouts, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am _not_ apologizing to some girl who's of an inferior race than I am! _She'll _come back to _me_, I don't need to–"

The box lands with a start. The floor slants and he finds himself falling again, sliding to the door. He can feel the TARDIS giggling in his mind and he scowls because he just _knows_ what she's trying to tell him. _You'll find a telly in her house!_ He fixes his messed up hair and is ready to walk back to the console room until the TARDIS shakes again.

The Master realizes he's in a losing battle and he steps out the door.

He finds her house soon enough and he reluctantly knocks on the door. He plasters on a fake smile, for the sake of whoever's going to answer the door. The smile immediately fades when it's the pink and yellow kitten, because he knows there's no need to pretend with her.

"Rosie?" he hears her mother call, walking towards the door from what he assumes is the kitchen. "Who is it?"

Both of them aren't minding her and it's him who speaks first before getting cut off. "Rose Tyler–"

"Don't." her voice is steely and determined, and just loud enough for her mother to hear, "I'm definitely _not_ going back with you."

Rose Tyler is pushed aside and a stinging slap is delivered to his face by an older blonde. He immediately clutches his cheek with his hand and double overs in pain. When he looks up he sees his companion looking vaguely amused. To her right, is the woman who slapped him with a glare that could kill a million Dalek fleets. "I'd like to see you stitch that, mate."

* * *

The Master is fishing for something in his pocket, muttering a string of curses in Gallifreyan. Rose realizes he's looking for his Eliminator as she closes the door and her eyes widen. "Don't you dare." she says and she sees him roll her eyes. He stands up straight again and acts as if nothing happened.

"Rose Tyler," he says, "As I was about to say before I was ever so rudely interrupted," he shoots a glare towards Jackie, "Could you please on the tel–"

Another slap resounds throughout the living room. "Who the hell are you?" Jackie exclaims, "You can't just waltz in here and ask for a favor when you're the reason why my daughter's been gone for a year! Twelve months I've been looking for her! What? Did you find her on the internet or something? Because I'm telling you, your stupid charm and smiles aren't going to fool me! Now, who are you and what did you do with my daughter?"

The Master blinks a couple of times as he rubs the side of his face. "Use your indoor voice." is all he replies, "And, please, don't be stupid. Your daughter's been gone for twelve hours, not twelve months. I understand humans are quite primitive, but I at least thought that you had a good sense of time–"

"Answer the question or you're getting another Prentice slap very soon."

Rose hears him muttering something about stupid humans under his breath, and her eyes narrow further at him. "Rose and I were traveling."

"Travelin'." her mum deadpans, "I'm going to tell you what I told my daughter. There's no possible way she could've been travelin' while her passport is still in her drawer. Rose is my daughter. It's okay when _she_ lies." Rose winces. "But you're just this random stranger who blundered into her life and next thing I know, she's vanished off the face of the Earth! Who. Are. You?"

"I'm the Master." the aforementioned alien replies.

"You're mad if you think I'm going to call you that." Jackie says, "Where'd you take my Rose?" Her mum repeats, then adds, after a silence. "And _what _did you do to make her cry?"

That last sentence is enough to make Rose Tyler want to crawl under a rock and die of embarrassment. She's silently hoping that the Master'll say sorry or something like that; realize what a jerk he was being, but he doesn't. Instead, a tiny smirk starts to form on his face and she scowls at it. The bastard faces her with the smug look on his face. "I knew you couldn't live without me." _Hit! _Rose punches him before Jackie can. "Oi! Don't ruin the face."

Rose shakes her fist. Why hadn't anyone told her that punching someone would actually hurt? "Get away from my home or I'll call the cops."

Jackie watches the exchange with a confused expression. "Was he your boyfriend or something, Rose?" she asks, "_Please_ tell me you haven't picked up another Jimmy Stone."

"Who's Jimmy Stone?"

Rose ignores him. "I thought he was different," she begins, telling the absolute truth in a rather quiet voice. She shoots him a glance before turning back to her mum. "But it turns out they're exactly the same." There's a silence after this before Rose continues talking. "Leave. You're right. We had our fun and now I don't want you anymore."

She's ready to shut the door in her face before she hears him continue talking. "I'm an alien and Rose and I _time_-travel in that blue box in the street–" she opens the door tentatively again, and the smug look has been wiped off of his face and he looks dead serious. "–and we've seen the end of the world and Charles Dickens and that's pretty much it right now, so if Rose Tyler would like to stop being so bloody difficult I need to go inside this home and turn on the television because an alien spaceship has just crashed into Big fucking Ben."

Rose raises an eyebrow. _A ship just crashed into Big Ben?_ she wonders. Jackie is not so easily convinced. Of course she isn't. This is her mum she's talking about. "You're mad." she says, "A madman, a, a, a _lunatic_ kidnapped my Rose. I'm calling the cops."

"Be quiet for just one second!" he shouts, "Now, go inside, turn on the TV. Put it on the news channel. I'll just be here, watching you realize that I'm right. Just like I always am."

Jackie slams the door in his face and she _has_ to crack a smile at that. She turns on the telly out of pure curiosity and sees the headline on the news. "Big Ben destroyed as a UFO crash lands in Central London. Police reinforcements are drafted in from across the country to control widespread panic, looting and civil disturbance. A state of national emergency has been declared. Tom Hitchinson is at the scene."

"The police are urging the public not to panic. There's a help line number on screen right now if you're worried about friends or family." Hitchinson says on News 24.

"See!" she hears the Master's muffled voice from the other side of the door, "I told you! Are you coming or not?"

"Shut up!" she shouts back. "And get it through your thick skull that I'm staying _here_!" She turns to her mum. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine." Jackie hugs her, "Nice punch."

She laughs, smiling as she pulls away. "Thanks."

Rose turns her attention back to the telly and sits down. "The army are sending divers into the wreck of the spaceship. No one knows what they're going to find." She can hear her mum in the background mentioning something about getting a bunch of people together to celebrate her coming back home and she replies with a 'yeah, sure, whatever', not really paying any attention.

She shifts back into her old life, and realizes that maybe she could do this. She's seen her share of the world and now she's going to live a normal life like everyone else with her mum, Mickey, Shareen and all the rest of her friends.

She smiles just a little at the thought, but she can't get the image of a blue box spinning through the stars out of her head.

After thirty minutes or so, people start to gather in her living room. Ru's the only one she really recognizes. "You've broken your mother's heart," she says after grabbing a cuppa and sitting next to her. "I cradled her like a child."

She's being completely serious and Rose laughs despite of it. "You have any idea where Mickey is?"

Ru raises an eyebrow. "You mean Jackie hasn't called Mickey yet?"

"Not that I know of."

"Jackie, come here!" Ru calls, "You owe someone an apology."

Jackie, interrupted from her conversation with someone else (Beatrice and Connor Allen, she thinks, those are the names of her mum's friends over there) raises an eyebrow. "Who?"

"Mickey, of course!"

Her mum ignores the statement and instead hushes him and points at the telly. "A body of some sort has been found inside the wreckage of the spacecraft." Hitchinson says, "Brought to the nearest shore. Unconfirmed reports say that the body is of extra-terrestrial origin. An extraordinary event unfolding here live here in Central London. The body is being transferred to a secure unit mortuary, the whereabouts is yet unknown. The roads in Central London are being..."

Rose doesn't mind the rest. She's trying to get her thoughts off of all things alien, after all.

* * *

The TARDIS materializes in the Albion Hospital, parking itself in a store room. The TARDIS is still rather angry with him, but he's decided not to care, it's one of the many things that he's good at anyway. Rose can't possibly _not_ want to travel with him. He's wonderful.

(He knows he said a lot of the things earlier just to hurt her, but really, he expected some kind of begging. Rose Tyler, dropping to her knees and asking to stay. She didn't even mind him when he came back, and that's just _rude_.)

The first person he spots is Big Ears and Leather. "Hey!" the Master calls, "You, over there!" The man continues walking, not minding him and he runs over to him, stopping him in his tracks. "You. You were there at Big Ben, and you were just some random civilian. Now you're here, in a place that's supposed to be closed off to the public. Who are you?"

Big Ears shuffles through his notes that he's holding. "Now's not the time to bother me." he says in a thick Northern accent, "And I believe I should be asking you that question. I know _everyone_ who's supposed to be here, and you're not one of them."

He fishes his psychic paper out of his pocket. "Harold Saxon, I'm the doctor who was called to examine the alien."

His conversation partner looks bored. "That's psychic paper." he says, "And even if I didn't know it what it was, _I'm_ the doctor. Doctor John Smith. Now, as much as I'd like to ask how you've got psychic paper in your possession, I need to go and do my job."

"That can't actually be your name."

"It's common for a reason." he replies, walking in his intended direction. "If you'll excuse me."

They both freeze when they start hearing a thumping coming from the walls. _Thump, thump, thump._ "You have any idea what that is?"

John shakes his head. "It's coming from Body Cold Chamber 5."

The Master starts running in the opposite direction John does. He's certain the thumping is coming from this door and he uses the Eliminator to shrink it. By the time the minuscule door lands on the floor, he realizes that the thumping is in a beat of four. He scowls. He wasn't following the thumping; he was following the drumming. They're so, so, loud. _Onetwothreefour_, _onetwothreefour_...

And he's just barreled into a room of Red Berets. After a second or two of looking at each other, they all finally lift their weapons. He waves with a tiny smirk and he's already getting out his Eliminator to kill them all in one go, before a crash is heard. They all begin to lower their weapons and he rolls his eyes. "What are you waiting for?" he asks, smiling slightly at the idea of having his own personal army of sorts. "Go!" He runs in the direction of the crash, grasping at air with his left hand before he realizes Rose Tyler isn't following behind him. He finds John Smith using a table to help himself stand up, a cut on his head. "What happened?"

As the man stands up, he points at the body chamber behind the Master and the time lord turns to face it. "The alien's alive." the Master says.

"Obviously." John replies, sarcastically, "It's a pig in a space suit, and it caused quite the mess, as you can see. Fantastic, isn't it?"

"Just wonderful." Metal starts to clatter. "It's still here, then?"

A soldier enters the room and when it spots the 'alien', it immediately fires and the pig runs out on its hind legs. John looks horrified. "Don't shoot!"

The Master raises an eyebrow, a bored look beginning to form. "It's just a pig."

"Exactly!" John replies, "It's not an alien. It's a pig. A frightened pig, mind you. The shooting'll just scare it."

"It's a _pig_." he repeats, deadpanning, as he follows John to the hallway where the soldiers are following the animal. He's walking, quite calm, compared to the man in the leather jacket who's probably running so fast his legs could fall off. By the time he arrives, the pig is dead.

"I told you not to shoot!" John is shouting, "It was _scared_. It's not even a real alien, it's just a pig!"

The soldiers ignore the doctor and the Master tries approaching him. "It's a mermaid." he says, awkwardly.

John raises an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure that isn't a fish."

"Stupid ape." he mutters, "Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid. Now someone's taken a pig, opened up it's brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb."

John makes a face that looks pitiful and disgusted. "It must've been terrified." he gestures to the dead animal on the floor, "They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke." he's silent, before adding, "The technology augmenting its brain, it can't possibly be human."

The Master examines it. "Of course it isn't." he says, "Humans are too primitive for something like that."

John looks thoughtful for a second before nodding in agreement, not responding for a few seconds. "Aliens are faking aliens." he says, "Why would they do that?"

"Well," the Master drawls, "I suppose it's time to find out." He begins walking in the direction of the TARDIS, John Smith close behind. He turns around and stops him. "I never asked for you to come. Now, go along with life and mope over more pigs or whatever it is you do."

John ignores the insult, his gaze transfixed on the police public call box. "What's a blue box doing in here?"

"Waiting for me." he replies, "Why'd you want to know?"

"Nothing, it... It just looks familiar." he says, "I'm coming with you."

"On the contrary," the Master replies as he steps into the TARDIS doors, "No, you're not."

The TARDIS begins to fade and John doesn't know what his reaction should be. It's just another impossible thing on another impossible day with another impossible (-y annoying person), and he looks for the psychic paper in his possession. Sanchez just _had_ to get hungover, so John just _had_ to cover for him. He rolls his eyes. Why couldn't Harris have done it? He continues walking towards the exit of Albion, going back home to watch the news and find out what the next place to go to is.

Sitting in his jacket's pocket is a silver fob watch.

* * *

"Here's to the Martians!"

"The Martians!"

Everybody raises their drink and joins in on the cheer.

(Except for Rose, of course.)

She's sitting down in a chair, not really minding the festivities going on, making polite chitchat with some people that she doesn't even know every now and then. She hears the door open and realizes Mickey's standing in the doorway. She stands and runs over to him, throwing her arms around his shoulders in a hug. "I was going to come and see you." she says, honestly.

"Jackie!" Ru calls from the couch, "Now's your chance to apologize to Mickey!"

Jackie approaches the pair and scowls. "It's not my fault. She disappeared! What was I supposed to think?"

"Mum..." she starts, "What did you do?" Her mum disappears into the kitchen and she follows, Mickey behind her. She repeats her earlier question. "What happened?"

"You disappear, who do they turn to?" Mickey immediately starts, cutting Jackie off before she can speak. "Your boyfriend. Five times I was taken in for questioning. _Five_ times. No evidence. Course, there couldn't be, could there? And then I get her, your mother, whispering around the estate, pointing the finger. Stuff through my letterbox, and all 'cos of you." Rose isn't sure who he's referring to in the last bit, her or her mother, but she feels guilty either way.

"I didn't think I'd be gone so long." she admits.

"And I waited for you, Rose." he says, his voice, steel and angry, "Twelve months, waiting for you and that alien to come back."

Jackie interrupts. "You knew about that bloke?" she asks, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Mickey shuts the serving hatch and the door, cutting them off from the living room. "Yeah, yeah." he says, "Why not, Rose? Huh? How could I tell her where you went?" Jackie raises an eyebrow. "I might as well, 'cos you're stuck here. He _did_ leave you, didn't he? Oh, he's dumped you, Rose. Sailed off into space. How does it feel, huh? Now you are left behind with the rest of us Earthlings. Get used to it."

"What's going on?" Jackie demands, "You can't actually believe that man is actually an alien! He's mad, that's what he is! You both are!"

Rose ignores her and continues talking to him. "He didn't leave me." she says, "_I_ left _him_."

"Just like you left me?" She's silent because she doesn't know what to say to that, and he continues talking. "After all, I didn't even get a proper goodbye. Just a 'thank you'. What the hell was that?"

She frowns and it turns into a full out grimace at the sound of the TARDIS. Mickey rushes outside, and so does Jackie, following him. She stays in the kitchen instead, not wanting to confront the Time Lord.

Rose can vaguely hear bits and pieces from inside. Things like, "that's a police box", and "it just came out of nowhere!" said by Jackie and Mickey respectively. She can hear her name being mentioned every once in a while, and she sincerely hopes that Mickey is able to hit him at some point too. Then, everything becomes silent for a while and she's hopeful because she thinks that maybe he's finally left her alone. A few minutes later, she realizes that neither Mickey nor her mum have come back yet.

She doesn't put it past him that he might've killed them by now.

It's at that thought that she gets out of the house and finds none of them there, but the blue box still stands in the alleyway. She takes a deep breath and swallows her pride, knocking on the door.

Jackie answers. "Rose," her mum starts quietly, "It's bigger on the inside."

"Yes, it is." Rose replies, "C'mon, they'll probably be looking for you back in the flat."

She grabs her mum by the hand as Jackie nods, prepared to leave the TARDIS. She can hear Mickey giving the Master a piece of his mind and she's proud of him because of it. "You ruined my life! They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of _you_! Who the hell are you anyway? Just swooshing in and saving the day, then swanning off with other people's girlfriends! I bet you don't even remember my name!"

"You're right." she hears the Master reply, "I don't." In the blink of an eye he's preventing she and her mum from leaving the blue box and looking her dead in the eye. "Aliens are impersonating aliens. Don't you want to come?"

"I already told you–" she's ready to say no before he cuts her off.

"Well, sorry, then. Actually, I'm not sorry at all. You can't." he finishes grinning somewhat triumphantly.

"–_No_. I'm staying." she says, not exactly glaring at him, but there isn't any smile on her face either. "Have fun with the alien impersonators."

"Have fun on boring earth with your boring boyfriend and your boring house that isn't even bigger on the inside." he replies, childishly. All that's missing is him sticking out his tongue, and it'll be just like interacting with a toddler.

"You know what?" she says, "I _will_." She tiptoes to get a glimpse of Mickey. "Come on, Mick!" Mickey and Jackie go out first and she turns around to follow them before she feels a familiar hand grabbing her wrist. She's yanked into the TARDIS and the doors shut. She glares at him. "Open the door." she demands.

"No." he says, darkly. "I'm doing you a favor. You want to go."

"Yes, I do!" she shouts, frustrated, "I want to see the universe and not have to stay at home and wake up everyday knowing that there's something amazing out there that I'm missing out on! But you know what? I'd rather live a boring, domestic life than travel the universe with you, if you're just going to continue acting like this." She continues, on a tirade. "What went wrong? Christmas with the Gelth was fun, you have to admit it! We were fine! We were perfectly okay! And we were _friends_! What happened that made you change your mind?"

"You lied!" he exclaims in return.

"I've never lied to you!"

"Yes, you have! You said you know how I feel, remember? The day after we met. You told me you perfectly understand what I feel! And you know what? I _believed_ you." his voice cracks for just a second at the last sentence but he continues, "And the truth is, this entire time you've been proving that you were telling the truth, but it was all just a fucking act!"

"No, it wasn't!" she protest.

"Don't lie to me again! You said you understand but you don't! No one ever does! I was perfectly fine before I met you, you know. I didn't care about anything, and now you have me running around saving the world like I'm some kind of hero." he spits out the last word like it's venom, "You're, you're trying to make me human when I'm not! You're trying to get me to feel human feelings when I shouldn't! I am better than some stupid ape! I am the last remaining Lord of Time!"

Her mouth forms an O in shock. "You're mad at me... for making you better?"

"You made me _worse_!"

"You don't have to be all by yourself, you stubborn prat." she says, "I'm here, remember? Maybe if you stopped being so bloody difficult, you wouldn't be so alone! You're like this because you push _everyone_ away!"

The TARDIS is silent for a good few minutes aside from its occasional whirring and buzzing, before the Master finally announces, "Leave." His entire being is numb, and she thinks she is too.

The moment she steps out of the blue box, there's a spotlight on her. A helicopter spotlight. "Do not move! Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads." Rose follows and in the corner of her eye she sees Mickey running away and she hears her mother calling her name before a group of soldiers hold her back. The Master steps out of the TARDIS soon after.

"What did you get yourself into this time?" he whispers to her.

"Of course it's my fault," she mutters, bitterly. "Apparently, I just make everything worse."

They don't talk to each other for until they get pushed into the posh police car waiting for them. _If I knew it was going to be like this, being arrested,_ she thinks to herself, _I would have done it years ago._ "Where are you taking us?" the Master asks, "Prison?"

The soldier in the car laughs. "Prison? Ha!" he says, "You travel in the blue box, therefore you _are_ the Doctor, yes?"

And here it is again with that Doctor bloke. Who the hell is he anyway? The Master lies easily. "I _am_ the Doctor." he says, "I repeat. Where are you taking us?"

"Downing Street." the soldier replies, "10 Downing Street."

Rose nearly chokes on air. "What?"

The moment they arrive at the place their are cameras flashing and reporters talking. She can't help but look around and she notices the Master flipping one of them the bird at some point and she scoffs at his action. They enter the waiting room where a man is talking. Ganesh, she hears his name is. "Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene? Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right, and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times." he walks over to the pair of them and offers one to the Master, "Here's your ID card. I'm sorry, your companion doesn't have clearance."

The Master opens his mouth, if it was to protest, she'll never know as she interrupts him instead. "That's fine." she says, waving her hand dismissively. "I don't need to go."

"Great." the Master remarks through gritted teeth.

Ganesh escorts him away, but right before they both leave, the pair turn around and Ganesh speaks. "I'll have to leave you with security. Is that all right?"

A new voice interrupts the conversation. "It's fine," he says, "I'll look after her. At least then I'll be of some use."

"You again!" the Master exclaims, just as she turns around to face him. She's never seen the man before in her life, all big ears and leather. "You're not really a doctor, are you?"

The man looks somewhat annoyed. "'Course I am!" he replies, before turning to face her as Ganesh hurries the Master along. She spots the Master watching them over his shoulder as he walks away and she smiles somewhat fakely. "Doctor John Smith." he says introducing himself, "What's your name?"

"Rose Tyler." she replies.

He grabs her hand. "Well, then, Rose Tyler," he begins, "It's time to run." He leads her past crowds and people, knocking over various items before they arrive in an empty room and she doesn't even need to pretend to smile anymore after he lets go of her hand. He looks at the various shelves, doors and windows, skimming his fingers across every surface. "Why are you here?"

"I'm the companion of that bloke from earlier." she says.

"Which bloke?" he asks, "Ganesh?"

She smiles, genuinely amused. "No, the other one." she says.

"Ah," John says in recognition, as he stops for just a second to smile at her, "He's rude."

"You've met him?" she asks, giggling.

"A while ago." he says, "Can't imagine what someone like you is doing dating someone like him."

She blushes instantly. "We're not together." she denies instantly, and changes the topic. "What're you looking for?"

"A door. Or a passage. I'm not very picky."

"To where?"

"The meeting room, of course!" he scowls, "I was denied entrance. I've got the ID card," he says, lifting is jacket a little bit to show her the ID stuck to his jumper, and she sees his face in the picture, not smiling, with the caption _Dr. John Smith, Greyhound 6 UNIT _and she has absolutely no idea what UNIT is but she gestures for him to continue anyway. "But no clearance. I'm an alien expert, I've got every right to go in there."

Rose snorts. "You think you're so impressive."

He stops what he's doing to face her completely affronted. "I am so impressive!"

She laughs. After a few seconds, she decides to ask, "What's UNIT?"

John rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. He looks as if he's debating something with himself for a while, before the corners of his mouth tug up into a slight smile. "I suppose I _could_ tell you. It's like an army, it's just that we deal with aliens instead of humans. 'Cept, I'm not very fond of guns, so I'm just a doctor."

"Wow." she says, honestly, "Working with aliens. You're right. You _are_ impressive."

He continues talking, grinning triumphantly. "It might sound strange, but working with aliens has always been kind of easy. I see this alien and I just know what it is, like recalling a memory." he stops to chuckle a bit, "You probably think I'm mad."

"No, no, no, you aren't." she says, reassuring him. "It's very interesting."

Suddenly, a woman bursts into the door and interrupts their conversation. She holds up her ID. "Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North. Are you the Doctor?"

John shakes his head. "Better. I'm an actual doctor instead of just some bloke running around and using the name." he replies, grinning. "You've got his companion though." he adds, gesturing towards Rose.

"Are you an expert too?" Harriet asks Rose, "You know about aliens?"

"A little bit." she replies, honestly.

"I could help with that." John says, "What happened?"

Harriet immediately bursts into tears. "C-C-Come with me." she says, leading them to the Cabinet Room and as she walks in the empty halls, she tries recounting what had just happened to her. "His name was Oliver. Oliver Charles, and they just turned his body into a suit."

"Who did?" Rose asks.

"These aliens!" Harriet replies, "They just unzipped his forehead and there was this blast of blue light. They were using their bodies as a disguise!"

John interrupts. "Did you just say 'they'?" he asks, "There was more than just Oliver?"

Rose squeezes Harriet's hand reassuringly as they enter a different room and she lets go. Harriet chokes back a sob, and Rose tries to comfort her. "It's all right. I believe you. It's, it's alien. They must have some serious technology behind this. If we could find it, we could use it." She starts searching the room, checking under desks and tables, until finally finding a cabinet and opening the doors.

A body falls out, but it's more like just skin now and she steps back in horror. She nearly screams and John hears her and rushes to her side. "Rose? What is it?"

"That's, that's the–"

She gets cut off as a familiar person enters the room. Ganesh. "Harriet, for God's sake. This has gone beyond a joke. You cannot just wander." he says, walking into the room. Rose's hands cover her mouth at the sight and Ganesh soon walks over to see what the fuss is about as Harriet remains in a corner, and she's stopped crying. "That's the Prime Minister!" he exclaims.

"The Prime Minister's dead." Rose panics, "Oh my God."

John looks at her straight in the eye. "Calm down." he says, "Nothing's going to happen to you."

"Oh!" someone suddenly says, a voice that's strange and new to her, but definitely female. "Has someone been naughty?"

"That's impossible." Ganesh reasons, "He left this afternoon. The Prime Minister left Downing Street. He was driven away!"

The stranger laughs. "And who told you that, hmm? Me."

She reaches up to her hairline and reveals a zipper of sorts, and slowly unzips it. The room is consumed by a bright blue light and Rose is scared. "John?" she whispers, and he squeezes her hand just so she knows that he heard her. "Do you have any idea what alien this is?"

An alien starts to wriggle out of the human 'suit'. It's green and it looks horrible, with giant bug like black eyes. The alien flexes her three, long fingers and sighs with relief. She uses her talons to push Ganesh against the wall and Rose tries to stay as still as still as possible, and Harriet barely contains a scream.

John responds a few seconds after. "Not a clue."

* * *

The Master is _bored_.

He's in a room full of stuffy 'alien experts' who probably don't even know the difference between a Silurian and a Cerulian or their Valkari from their Viskili. Still, he listens anyway to the speaker at the front of the room. What's his name again? He knows it ends in -ith. Smith? Alith? He honestly doesn't know. "Now, ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention, please. As you can see from the summaries in front of you, the ship had one porcine occu–"

"That's not the important bit."

Everyone turns to face the Master (or at least, to them, the _Doctor_), and he knows that he's just interrupted something that they probably consider important. Ith raises an eyebrow. "Oh, really, Doctor?"

It's strange having people refer to him by Thete's title, because there is no way he is the man who makes people better. "You were going to investigate something in the North Sea, yes?" he asks, drumming his fingers on the table.

"How did you know about that?" Ith asks.

"Again, not the important bit." he says, "There's something down there, in the North Sea. You were going to have a look at it. What stopped you?"

"Surely this is more important!"

"Exactly." the Master exclaims, "Spaceships and pigs happened. It's just a distraction. Now, if you'll excuse me–" He stands up from his chair, ready to leave these people to figure out the whole thing on their own. He's figured it out for them, there's no need for him to stay, until, the man in the seat next to him farts. The Master makes a face. "What? No thank you for saving the world? Just someone farting?"

The man who did so speaks. "Would you rather silent but deadly?"

Ith removes his cap (_Asquith! That's his name!_) and begins unzipping something on his forehead. A zipper is right below his hairline and the Master is prepared to attack. The man does the same, as blue light begins to fill the room and the Master squints in response.

"We are the Slitheen." Green says as the green alien steps out of the skin, now shed onto the floor.

"Thank you for wearing your IDs," Asquith says, "They'll help in identifying the bodies."

The Master feels a sudden shock.

He sees nothing but black.

* * *

**replies to guest reviews**

***Guest**: The Master's appearance in this story is somewhat of a question mark. I've never really decided, but it's definitely not Simm because that would be his next regeneration. However, I like to think that the Master's Yana regeneration was originally rather young (think around his twenties) but grew old as a result of his human biology. I don't describe the Master's appearance on purpose here, but everyone's free to picture him however they want. Thanks for reviewing!

***Lucy Saxon**: Aaaand, you'll get to see whether or not Rose leaves him forever next chapter. Tune in for Chapter Five of Beating of the Drums! Hahaha, in all seriousness, thanks for reviewing, I appreciate it.

***Vree**: Sorry I didn't update so soon, but here it is! Thanks for reviewing!

* * *

**AN**: *comes peeping out of a doorway* Umm... Hi? Look, I know that I didn't update in the longest time but this past week I had zero access to internet because I was out of the country, but I'm back now with an update that's 8 000 words long, so I hope that makes up for it. :) Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for all the reviews! ~Bell


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